Publish, and be damned! That’s what Lord Wellington said, but how far can Digg users go down this route, without being sued? After all, evil libel lawyers are everywhere, waiting to bankrupt you from their virtual offices on Second Life. Worse, they are perfectly capable of fulfilling their aim, for the internet’s shroud of anonymity is exactly that – a mere veil, one which can be lifted in the thump of a judge’s gavel. But help is at hand. Here at Swordplay, we believe in freedom of expression, so here are seven slices of legal advice to ensure that your Digg story doesn’t get you sued.
1. Write about people who are dead.
The dead can’t sue for libel. Better yet, nor can their estates. So in a list of the World’s Ugliest People, try and favour the likes of Boris Karloff (who died in 1969), rather than, for example, film director and actor Steven Berkoff, a man who once sued for libel over the allegation that he was “hideously ugly”. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and Berkoff looks pleasant enough to us, but if he’d already left this mortal coil when the offending piece was published (by none other than Julie Burchill), offence couldn’t have been taken. (Note: the court found for Berkoff.)
2. Write mere vulgar abuse.
Libel law doesn’t allow referees at football matches to sue when thousands of fans chant “the referee’s a w*****”. Why? Because this is “mere vulgar abuse”. The law says that there are times when we’ve all got to be able to put up with a bit of this. Quite right, too (Graham Poll knows the feeling).
3. Express your opinion.
“Seems like fair comment to me.” This expression is embedded in discourse everywhere, and it alludes to a useful way of keeping libel claims at bay. If you express an opinion on facts that are in the public domain, you’re protected by the defence of fair comment. So, for example, to say “I think Sarah Palin’s habit of winking at the camera is so crass it’s unbelievable” is perfectly OK: she does wink at the camera, it’s in the public domain, and you’re entitled to have a robust, even prejudiced opinion on this rather wearisome habit.
4. Write about companies.
The law says that companies can sue for libel, but they’ve got to prove that financial damage has flowed as a direct consequence of what’s been written about them. This is often a tortuous exercise and many of today’s corporations are more likely to deploy clever PR tactics to manage their reputations than wheel out the lawyers. But scribe, beware: the McLibel Two will confirm that little people do still get sued by the big guys.
5. Get your facts right.
Here’s the deal. You’ve written a piece called “The UK’s 10 Worst Companies for Environmental Destruction”, happy in the knowledge that you’ll probably be OK because the companies will have a hard time proving that their share prices have plummeted as a result. But one of them does sue you, and lo and behold, the allegation that it serially pillages and plunders obscure Albanian villages proves to be wholly untrue. This is Bad News, because your evidence for this claim is something you read on Google rather than something that you know to be true and are able to adduce in evidence. So always ensure your facts are correct, and if there’s any doubt, make sure that what you write is couched as your opinion rather than the last, definitive, Gospel truth (which sounds nice but isn’t so great when it lands you in court).
6. Write about politicians.
They’re a rum bunch, politicians, but they rarely sue for libel. Why? Well, on the one hand the majority recognise that by standing for office, they put themselves up for criticism and ought to take it on the chin. On the other, there are defences in both the US and the UK that allow the media – that’s you – a lot of leeway when it comes to writing about politicians. You can even get facts wrong, provided there was a real public interest in what you’re saying and that you weren’t acting maliciously. In contrast, note that writing about Premier League footballers and Hollywood stars, especially those who enjoy Scientology, can be seriously damaging to your wallet. (Photo courtesy of the Huffington Post.)
7. Write about animals (and Mongolian Death Worms).
We live in litigious times but to date no jurisdiction in the world has allowed an animal to launch legal proceedings. You can say what you want about them, safe in the knowledge that you won’t be sued (this isn’t the case with children, who can sue, so watch out). Taking the Mongolian Death Worm pictured above (with thanks to Environmental Graffiti) as an example, we can call him any number of defamatory things, such as ugly, foul and repulsive; malevolent, lazy and sexually deviant; downright criminal; a bigamist, a thief and a liar; all in all, not a worm to be trusted; and there is not a court in the world that would let him bring a claim for libel. Moreover, this particular worm may not even exist, reminding us that obvious hogwash, especially if imbued with a healthy dose of irony, will also serve you well.
So Digg, and be damned!
