Long Arm of Libel Tourists Chopped off by New York State.

The New York state legislature voted unanimously last Monday to pass a law that would protect authors and publishers from libel judgements in foreign countries where
standards are less stringent than in the US. Sponsor of the bill Assemblyman Rory. I. Lancman said " To my knowledge, the free speech protection that is afforded American citizens is unique in the world " So it is; it puts the rest of the world including Britain to shame. His bill, Lancman declared made all foreign libel suits in New York State void by definition.

The legislation was prompted by so called "libel tourists" who sought to have enforced in the US rulings in their favour obtained abroad. Most famously, a Bin Mahfouz, mentioned in Rachel Ehrenfeld's " Funding Evil- How Terrorism is Financed and How to Stop It " went to the pliant British courts and was promptly rewarded with damages and an apology order against Ehrenfeld and the banning in Britain of her book. We should hold back on the champagne though because the battle is not quite over. Bottom feeding US lawyers who make pots of dosh out of the "libel tourists" are, of course, at this very moment tooling up to try and torpedo the new law.

Even if the will of the New York State legislature is upheld, all would still not be well. Because Rachel Ehrenfeld has rightly declined to recognise the British assault on her freedom of expression, she has refused to pay the damages or apologise and as a consequence can't put a foot in Britain. I find this extremely vexatious; I would very much have liked her to come here and lecture on exactly how Muslim terrorism is financed. I also object to the good name of Britain being besmirched by her 18C libel laws.