Friday 14 May 2010

Judge throws out libel action over Baader-Meinhof link in journalist’s blog

A political activist today failed in her libel action over a journalist’s blog which referred to her “Baader-Meinhof" link.
In a ruling that gives bloggers some protection against libel actions, Mr Justice Eady rejected a claim by Johanna Kaschke , a Tower Hamlets-based Conservative, against David Osler, a Labour Party member, over an article that was written in April 2007.
Ms Kaschke claimed that some of the comments linked her with terrorism. The judge at the High Court in London, however, struck out the claim as an abuse of process.
Mr Osler, a journalist and blogger, said that he only posted the material after seeing an article on Ms Kaschke’s own website and had never suggested that Ms Kaschke was involved in bank robberies, violence or terrorism.
He accepted that, although she came under suspicion in the 1970s and was imprisoned for a time, she was not guilty of any criminal offence and was paid compensation in Germany for her wrongful arrest.
He said that he had given Ms Kaschke a right of reply, which appeared on the blog in May 2007, and was prepared to join in a statement reaffirming his acceptance of her innocence.
Ms Kaschke issued proceedings in April 2008, just over a year after the blog was originally published.
Mr Justice Eady agreed with lawyers for Mr Osler that the claim should be limited to a publication proved to have happened within the 12 months leading up to the issue of proceedings.
They also argued that the claim should be struck out because the passages relied in part on words from Ms Kaschke’s own website.
Robert Dougans, a media lawyer with Bryan Cave, said: “This ruling is good news for the online media, as Mr Justice Eady was clear that ‘stale’ blog posts and articles available online but not actively linked to a site will not be deemed to have been published without actual evidence that someone has read them.”
He said that would provide some protection for bloggers and online media pending any legislation to tackle the problem of the internet and “multiple publication” giving rise to endless potential libel lawsuits.
He said that the “multiple publication rule” still existed and that meant that each time a blog posting was downloaded there was a separate cause of action, no matter when the posting was originally put online.
However, he added: “This case means bloggers now can rest assured that just because a posting is available on the internet it will not be deemed to have been published. A claimant will need to put forwards real evidence that an old blog post has actually been read.”
The judge said that he was quite satisfied the posting did not link Ms Kaschke to terrorism in the sense of suggesting in any way that she was directly linked with it or that she approved of the extremist activities.
Mr Osler, he added, was merely choosing to highlight an unusual event in the history of someone who was at the material time active in politics in London.
Striking out the claim, he concluded that if a jury found in favour of Ms Kaschke, the damages would be very modest and out of all proportion to the time and money spent on the cost of a two-week trial.
He added: “It is an important consideration for the court to have in mind on any abuse application that the fact of being sued at all is a serious interference with freedom of expression.
“That may be appropriate in the majority of libel actions, where it is necessary to countenance such interference in order to vindicate the rights of another person in respect of whom a real and substantial tort has occurred.
“But the court must be vigilant to recognise the small minority of cases where the legitimate objective of vindication is not required or, at least, cannot be achieved without a wholly disproportionate interference with the rights of the defendant.”
Frances Gibb @'The Times'
Well done to Dave Osler, JackofKent & Robert Dougans...
Are there any pics of Justice Eady in his 'Brigade Rosse' t shirt LOL?
*Justice Eady is Sir David Eady!!!

2 comments:

  1. Please read my side of the story
    http://jkaschke.wordpress.com/legal/libel-cases/help/

    ReplyDelete
  2. 2Everyone/
    As Johanna Kaschke has rightly pointed out there is another side to this story. There are two sides to every story...
    Regards/

    ReplyDelete