Thursday, October 04, 2007

Free speech is all very well, but...

The little man who labours away in the back room of the computer shop tells me that, come Monday, he may be in a position to sew my right arm back on (metaphorically speaking). So who knows -- next week normal service on this blog might even be resumed.

In the meantime, here's something for you to think about.

We have often noted here, you and I, that the libel laws of England provide wonderful cover for those who have something to hide: R. Maxwell being a splendid (and helpfully dead) example. All you need is lots of money to pay the lawyers. And over the past few weeks we have occasionally noted that billionaire Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz has used said libel laws to force Cambridge University Press to pulp all copies of a book which said things about him that he didn't like (see, for instance, the post of 1 September).

You might have thought, were you not fully briefed on these matters, and deeply cynical, that the UK newspapers would have brought their readers fully up to speed on this issue, since it involves (doesn't it?) the principle of free speech: a principle in which you might have thought, were you not fully briefed et cetera et cetera, the UK newspapers had a deep interest.

But no. It turns out that, as usual, money doesn't just talk; it screams its bloody head off. What is more, it gets its way.

The fearless UK fortnightly Private Eye at least has the balls to tell readers what is happening. As of the time when the Eye went to press, the lawyers who protect the UK media against their own excesses have ensured that every mention of the Sheikh in question has been deleted.

The Observer, says the Eye, was all set to run a piece on Mahfouz by Nik Cohen, but the lawyers spiked it. The Spectator was going to do a piece by Brendan O'Neill, which listed all the titles that Mahfouz has succeeded in getting pulped. O'Neill' s essay concluded that Mahfouz is 'almost single-handedly determining what we Brits may read and hear about contemporary terrorism.' But, again, the story never appeared.

12 comments:

Gladys Hobson said...

Well, money talks and money gags. Doesn't money rule the world anyway? The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. So sad.

Anonymous said...

Yaaaa! A nice little something to tide us over. Wasn't it the Arab that said something about rich men and camels leaping through the eye of a needle more likely than they to enter heaven? I'm certain that personal integrity lasts far longer on the road to heaven than all the money in the world. Hip, hip for our self-publishing moral icon GOB!! May he live forever as a beacon in the dismal swamp of rich and richer.

Randy said...

Will you let us know if and when you yourself are served papers?

Anonymous said...

I was encouraged on one of your previous links that the American Library Association had refused to jump into line with Mahfouz's demand that anything in the universe referencing his name, even on a matchbook, be pulped. I hope the UK courts come to their senses on this issue before more benches around the world see it as too good to pass up. In fact, I'm actually surprised the US hasn't picked up on it, having as many hungry lawyers and excess wealth as we do.

DS said...

You seem surprised, surely we all know by now that justice is not related to law. It always comes down to who can buy the biggest scariest barristers.

As an aside there is no free speech in Australia, only an implied right to freedom of political speech.

savannah said...

how did i miss this? thanks again, sugar! i have to hope that if the sheik brings his case to the usa, he'll spend millions to sue and lots of time and in the end...lose his case. forget free speech..we're talking about billable hours!
hope your machine is up and running soon!

Anonymous said...

any idea of the titles he has been able to stop and how many there are...just this one seems amazing enough but it sounds like he might have had his hand in gagging many other titles

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