This entry was posted on
Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 at
4:23 pm and is filed
under UK Libel Law.
They come over here, marry our women, take our jobs and exploit our libel laws.
[Note – New category; ‘UK Libel Law’. There’s more to come on this issue, as was promised here.]
By Jim Bliss February 7, 2008 - 4:09 pm
The article you linked to was very interesting, Tim, but the site doesn't allow comments and I have a question about the subject. Perhaps if I post my query here, someone will know the answer.Reportedly: "Rinat Akhmetov, the richest man in the Ukraine" successfully sued for libel in a London court "in his action against two editors and a journalist working for the Ukrainian online newspaper, Obozrevatel."Right, the question: exactly what jurisdiction does a London libel court have over a Ukrainian newspaper?Seriously, how is it possible that the "victory" won by Akhmetov will have any practical consequences for the newspaper in question? I guess the ruling might require the paper to publish a retraction in their English edition were it to be published in the UK. But there is no English edition, and the paper is not published in the UK. Maybe I'm missing something, but what exactly is the point of using a London court to sue someone outside the jurisdiction of the British legal system?
By Manic February 7, 2008 - 4:22 pm
I'll ping that over to RB, Jim.(Not sure why he's not currently allowing comments, but I would argue that comments would be unwise in any sensitive post on the subject of libel anyway.)
By Bartholomew February 8, 2008 - 8:31 am
That was the attitude taken by the defendents, so perhaps it's nothing more than a "symbolic" victory that Akhmetov boast over – and put Western journalists (or any Ukrainian journalists with UK assets) "on notice" not to publish anything in English.By the way, I suspended comments because I was once threatened with a libel action myself over a comment left by someone else, so I've learnt to be cautious. The two people doing the threatening were dicks about it, too – even after I'd removed the comment there were continuung demands for "compensation" etc for a while.My Userland software also means that when I turn off comments for one entry on the front page, it does it for all of them.
By Jim Bliss February 8, 2008 - 1:12 pm
Thanks for the response Bartholomew. It did strike me as a very strange story, because I couldn't see how Akhmetov would get anything from it aside from that "symbolic victory". But even that, I suspect, was rather hollow. After all, a Ukrainian newspaper would almost certainly view being sued for libel in a London court by someone like Akhmetov as a badge of honour more than anything else.