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Libel tourism in the context of press freedom
Abstract
The phrase ‘libel tourism’ appeared for the first time in 1990, when a Hollywood star Arnold
Schwarzenegger sued American author Wendy Leigh for his unauthorized biography in an English court
[Rayner 2010; Sanchez 2011]. A number of recent cases included wealthy libel tourists such as Nicole
Kidman, David Hasselhoff, Roman Polański, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Britney Spears, Tiger Woods
and Cameron Diaz. Since 2005, the number of libel actions in the High Court has doubled, and in 2009, there
were 219 defamation cases issued; 34 of them were identified as having a “foreign connection” [Ministry
of Justice, Report of the Libel Working Group]. In a short time, the widespread opinion has appeared that
London has become the “Libel Capital of the World” [London “The Times”, Be Reasonable; Carvajal,
Britain, a Destination for ‘Libel Tourism’]. Through an extensive review of relevant case law and studies
I would like to draw attention to the problem of libel tourism which creates a chilling effect on press freedom.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/k.2015.22.1.195
Date of publication: 2016-04-18 13:29:48
Date of submission: 2016-04-18 12:46:10
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