Foreign Courts Assault on American Free Speech Rights

In a Wall Street Journal opinion-piece yesterday, Senators Arlen Specter (R) and Joseph Lieberman (I) make their case for the Free Speech Protection Act of 2008.  Contact Congress to support this bill.

What’s the issue?

Well, libel laws are different in other countries but book publication and the Internet are global, so a book published in the United States, and perfectly acceptable under American law might be considered libelous in the UK.

How is this possible?  American libel law places the burden of proof on the plaintiff, meaning that the person complaining about libel has to prove that the statements aren’t true.  In the UK and other countries, the court must presume the statements are untrue and it’s the burden of the writer to prove that they are.

Authors of books and research studies on terrorism and terrorist-funding are being sued in foreign courts, this is having a chilling effect on free speech.  Cambridge University Press, under the mere threat of such a lawsuit, destroyed all available copies of the book “Alms for Jihad”.  Letters were sent to libraries demanding that they destroy their copies of the book.

This is book-burning on a global-scale.

The Free Speech Protection Act of 2008 bars American courts from enforcing libel judgments obtained in foreign courts, if the speech would not be libelous under American law.  The bill also provides American authors the ability to counter-sue if the material is protected by the First Amendment and increased damages if a jury finds the original suit was “part of a scheme to suppress free speech rights”.

Freedom of Speech is a cornerstone of the United States and must be protected.  Foreign courts should not be allowed to suppress the speech of American citizens in any way. 

There’s a slippery-slope here, in my opinion.  If we accept libel judgments from a UK court against an American citizen on American soil for authoring a book, won’t we have to accept the judgments of courts in, say, France?  Or Turkey?  Or North Korea?  Or Iran?  You see the progression there? 

Does it stop with books?  The Internet is global.  Can a court in Saudi Arabia find a judgment against an American citizen for writing something in a blog?

Wouldn’t the mere threat of such a lawsuit have a chilling effect on Free Speech in this country?  Will American authors have to hire attorneys and travel the globe to defend their work against these suits?  How many authors have the resources to do that?  Won’t it be safer to just not write the words?

If you agree that the Free Speech rights of American citizens should be protected from interference by foreign powers, write your Congressmen and urge them to support Senators Specter’s and Lieberman’s bill.  Using RallyCongress to contact your representatives on this issue is very easy, just a few mouse clicks and entering your name and address. 

Sample letter text:

I am writing to you to urge you to support the Free Speech Protection Act of 2008, introduced by Senators Specter and Lieberman, as well as its House counter-part introduced by Representatives Pete King and Anthony Weiner.

Freedom of Speech is a cornerstone of the United States and must be protected. Foreign courts have no business interfering in the Constitutional rights of American citizens.
With today’s global marketplace, books and research by American authors and publishers are available around the world, but the rights of those authors must not be given up to foreign courts with no respect for our Constitution and laws.

I urge you to support this legislation and protect the rights of Americans from infringement by foreign powers.