Oscar Wilde had one of literary history's most explosive love affairs with Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas. In 1895, Bosie's father, the Marquess of Queensberry, delivered a note to the Albemarle Club addressed to "Oscar Wilde posing as sodomite." With Bosie's encouragement, Wilde sued the Marquess for libel. He not only lost but he was tried twice for "gross indecency" and sent to prison with two years' hard labor. With this publication of the uncensored trial transcripts, readers can for the first time in more than a century hear Wilde at his most articulate and brilliant. The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde documents an alarmingly swift fall from grace; it is also a supremely moving testament to the right to live, work, and love as one's heart dictates.

The twenty-first century has been significantly shaped by the growing importance of religion in international politics resulting in rising polarization among nation states. This new dynamic has presented new challenges to international human rights principles. This book deals with some of these new challenges, particularly the growing demand by Muslim states for protection of Islamic religion from blasphemy and defamation. Member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), through resolutions at the United Nations, made efforts to introduce laws that globally protect Islamic religion from blasphemy and defamation. The bid by OIC member states faced opposition from Western countries. The conflicting claims of the two sides are discussed in this book. The book clearly shows the impact of blasphemy and defamation of religion laws on certain aspects of fundamental human rights principles.

In this study we look at how free speech interests are balanced against the need to protect reputation in American and English defamation laws. We studied cases from both countries to see how this tension is resolved. We pay special attention to 'public interest' defence since the media often justifies its attack on reputation on 'public interest', even when it is substituting its own interest for this 'public interest'.

This book discusses the ostensible reasons for this legislation and examines the law in light of traditional principles of extending recognition to foreign judgments as an essential aspect of comity among nations. In order to properly evaluate the SPEECH Act and its likely implications, this study critically examines the ongoing degradation of First Amendment speech protections in the US and the developing English common law defamation privileges and reaches some startling conclusions. In this first critical study of the SPEECH Act, Harry Melkonian not only examines the specifics and likely application of this legislation as well as the underlying phenomenon of Libel Tourism but also provides a radically new perspective on the incipient convergence of US First Amendment and English common law freedom of speech and defamation principles. Uniquely, the book approaches the concept of convergence from the viewpoint of both doctrinal law and free speech theory and amalgamates the results through application of the traditional law of comity among nations. Defamation, Libel Tourism and the SPEECH Act of 2010 is an essential book for everyone involved with international legal aspects of the media including publishers, broadcasters, as well as legal professionals and academics.

Providing comparative analysis that examines both Western and non-Western legal systems, this wide-ranging Handbook expands and enriches the existing privacy and defamation law literature and addresses the fundamental issues facing today's scholars and practitioners. Comparative Privacy and Defamation provides insightful commentary on issues of theory and doctrine, including the challenges of General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and the impact of new technologies on the law. Chapters explore the origins and development of the right to privacy, privacy rights of photographic subjects and defamation by photo-manipulation, and the right to be forgotten. Containing contributions from expert international scholars, this comprehensive Handbook investigates the liability of internet intermediaries in cases of defamation and the emerging problem of global injunctions before concluding with eight country focussed studies. Engaging and accessible, this Handbook will be a key resource for students and scholars researching in the fields of privacy and defamation law, internet and technological law and information and media law. Contributors include: T.D.C. Bennett, S. Bretthauer, J. Campbell, P. Coe, M. Cornils, S.C. Ekaratne, A. Gajda, G. Gil, A. Koltay, R. Krotoszynski, J. Kulesza, D. Mangan, D. Milo, R. Moosavian, J. Oster, K.S. Park, M. Pearson, J. Reichel, D. Rolph, J. Shimizu, D.N. Staiger, R.L. Weaver, R.H. Weber, P. Wragg, M.N. Yan, V. Zeno-Zencovich

Media Law: A Practical Guide (Revised Edition) provides a clear and concise explanation of media law principles. It focuses on the practical aspects of how to protect oneself from claims and how to evaluate the likelihood of a successful claim. This new edition has been revised to reflect important changes and updates to the law, including recent developments relating to scandalous trademarks, embedding, fair use, drones, revenge porn laws, interpretation of emoji, GDPR, false statements laws, lies, and the libel implications of the #MeToo movement. Media Law is divided into five sections that help non-lawyers understand how the principles apply to their actual behavior: background information about the legal system; things you can be sued for; how you actually gather information; ways the government can regulate speech; and practical issues that are related to media law. This book is perfect for courses in media and communications law or a combination course in journalism law and ethics, as it covers both the legal and ethical aspects of communication.

Should digital platforms be responsible for intimate images posted without the subject's consent? Could the viewers of such images be liable simply by viewing them? This book answers these questions in the affirmative, while considering the social, legal and technological features of unauthorized dissemination of intimate images, or 'revenge porn'. In doing so, it asks fundamental socio-legal questions about responsibility, causation and apportionment, as well as conceptualizing private information as property. With a focus on private law theory, the book defines the appropriate scope of liability of platforms and viewers, while critiquing both the EU's and US' solutions to the problem. Through its analysis, the book develops a new theory of egalitarian digital privacy.

On the lapse of the Licensing Act in 1695, Thomas Macaulay wrote in his History of England, 'English literature was emancipated, and emancipated for ever, from the control of the government'. It's certainly true that the system of prior restraint enshrined in this Restoration measure was now at an end, at least for print. Yet the same cannot be said of government control, which came to operate instead by means of post-publication retribution, not pre-publication licensing, notably for the common-law offence of seditious libel. For many of the authors affected, from Defoe to Cobbett, this new regime was a greater constraint on expression than the old, not least for its alarming unpredictability, and for the spectacular punishment-the pillory-that was sometimes entailed. Yet we may also see the constraint as an energizing force. Throughout the eighteenth century and into the Romantic period, writers developed and refined ingenious techniques for communicating dissident or otherwise contentious meanings while rendering the meanings deniable. As a work of both history and criticism, this book traces the rise and fall of seditious libel prosecution, and with it the theatre of the pillory, while arguing that the period's characteristic forms of literary complexity-ambiguity, ellipsis, indirection, irony-may be traced to the persistence of censorship in the post-licensing world. The argument proceeds through case studies of major poets and prose writers including Dryden, Defoe, Pope, Fielding, Johnson, and Southey, and also calls attention to numerous little-known satires and libels across the extended period.

The law of defamation contemplates the clash of two fundamental rights: the right to freedom of expression, including freedom of the media, and the right to reputation. The rules of defamation law are designed to mediate between these two rights. The central proposition that this book makes is that defamation law needs to be reformed to balance the conflicting rights. This discussion flows from a theoretical analysis of the rights in issue; the value underlying the right to reputation that has most resonance is human dignity, while the value that is most apposite to freedom of expression in this context is the argument that free speech is integral to democracy. The argument from democracy emphasizes that speech on matters of public interest should receive greater protection than private speech. This book argues that fundamental rules of defamation law need to be reformed to take into account the dual importance of public interest speech on the one hand, and the right to human dignity on the other. In particular, the presumptions that defamatory allegations are false and have caused damage, the principle of strict liability to primary publishers and negligence liability to secondary publishers, and the availability of punitive damages, should not survive constitutional scrutiny. The quantum of damages and costs rules, and the remedies available in defamation cases, should also be reformed to reflect the importance of dignity to the claimant, and the free speech interest of the public in receiving accurate information on matters of public interest.

Convicted sexually violent predators are more vilified, more subject to media misrepresentation, and more likely to be denied basic human rights than any other population. Shaming the Constitution authors Michael Perlin and Heather Cucolo question the intentions of sex offender laws, offering new approaches to this most complex (and controversial) area of law and social policy. The authors assert that sex offender laws and policies are unconstitutional and counter-productive. The legislation largely fails to add to public safety-even ruining lives for what are, in some cases, trivial infractions. Shaming the Constitution draws on law, behavioral sciences, and other disciplines to show that many of the "solutions" to penalizing sexually violent predators are "wrong," as they create the most repressive and useless laws. In addition to tracing the history of sex offender laws, the authors address the case of Jesse Timmendequas, whose crime begat "Megan's Law;" the media's role in creating a "moral panic;" recidivism statistics and treatments, as well as international human rights laws. Ultimately, they call attention to the flaws in the system so we can find solutions that contribute to public safety in ways that do not mock Constitutional principles.

Since 2005, Thailand has been in crisis, with unprecedented political instability and the worst political violence seen in the country in decades. In the aftermath of a military coup in 2006, Thailand's press freedom ranking plunged, while arrests for lese-majeste have skyrocketed to levels unknown in the modern world. Truth on Trial in Thailand traces the 110-year trajectory of defamation-based laws in Thailand. The most prominent of these is lese-majeste, but defamation aspects also appear in laws on sedition and treason, the press and cinema, anti-communism, contempt of court, insulting of religion, as well as libel. This book makes the case that despite the appearance of growing democratization, authoritarian structures and urges still drive politics in Thailand; the long-term effects of defamation law adjudication has skewed the way that Thai society approaches and perceives "truth."

Employing the work of Habermas, Foucault, Agamben, and Schmitt to construct an alternative framework to understand Thai history, Streckfuss contends that Thai history has become "suspended" since 1958, and repeatedly declining to face the truth of history has set the stage for an endless state of crisis.

This book will be of interest to students and scholars of South East Asian politics, Asian history, and media and communication.

David Streckfuss is an independent scholar who has lived in Thailand for more than 20 years. His work primarily concerns human rights, and political and cultural history.

Since 2005, Thailand has been in crisis, with unprecedented political instability and the worst political violence seen in the country in decades. In the aftermath of a military coup in 2006, Thailand s press freedom ranking plunged, while arrests for l se-majest have skyrocketed to levels unknown in the modern world. Truth on Trial in Thailand traces the 110-year trajectory of defamation-based laws in Thailand. The most prominent of these is l se-majest, but defamation aspects also appear in laws on sedition and treason, the press and cinema, anti-communism, contempt of court, insulting of religion, as well as libel. This book makes the case that despite the appearance of growing democratization, authoritarian structures and urges still drive politics in Thailand; the long-term effects of defamation law adjudication has skewed the way that Thai society approaches and perceives "truth."

Employing the work of Habermas, Foucault, Agamben, and Schmitt to construct an alternative framework to understand Thai history, Streckfuss contends that Thai history has become "suspended" since 1958, and repeatedly declining to face the truth of history has set the stage for an endless state of crisis.

This book will be of interest to students and scholars of South East Asian politics, Asian history, and media and communication.

David Streckfuss is an independent scholar who has lived in Thailand for more than 20 years. His work primarily concerns human rights, and political and cultural history.

Law and Medicine in Revolutionary America: Dissecting the Rush v. Cobbett Trial, 1799 offers the first deep analysis of the most important libel trial in post-revolutionary America and an approach to understanding a much-studied revolutionary figure, Benjamin Rush, in a new light as a legal subject. This libel trial faced off the new nation's most prestigious physician-patriot, Benjamin Rush, against its most popular journalist, William Cobbett, the editor of Porcupine's Gazette. Studied by means of a rare and substantial surviving transcript, the trial features six litigating counsel whose narrative of events and roles provides a unique view of how the revolutionary generation saw itself and the legacy it wished to leave to its progeny. The trial is structured by assaults against medical bleeding and its premier practitioner in yellow fever epidemics of the 1790s in Philadelphia, on the one hand, and castigates the licentiousness of the press in the nation's then-capital city, on the other. As it does so, it exemplifies the much-derided litigiousness of the new nation and the threat of sedition that characterized the development of political parties and the partisan press in late eighteenth-century America.

This volume deals with vital issues on freedom of expression and freedom of information and emphasizes the importance of the free exchange and dissemination of ideas and of open, and therefore more accountable, government. It notes the ways in which these freedoms have received recent legislative attention in the Human Rights Act 1998, the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Bill.

Media and entertainment law is one of the fastest growing sectors of practice in the UK and European Community. Practising lawyers are hungry for information and informed analysis of the latest developments in this fast-moving field. This Yearbook spans the traditional concerns of media lawyers such as free speech and freedom of the press generally, including libel law and contempt of court as well as the core areas of entertainment law practice such as copyright, contracts, licensing and competition. In addition it covers the emerging fields of new technologies, the impact of the much heralded `information highway' upon media law, the effects of European Community initiatives in this area and the ever changing subject of broadcasting regulation. The Yearbook consists of high-quality analytical articles, important annual surveys of developments in all these fields and reviews of recent publications, all of which will be of interest to the practising and academic lawyer.

Sports figures cope with a level of celebrity once reserved for the stars of stage and screen. In Game Faces , Sarah K. Fields looks at the legal ramifications of the cases brought by six of them--golfer Tiger Woods, quarterback Joe Montana, college football coach Wally Butts, baseball pitchers Warren Spahn and Don Newcombe, and hockey enforcer Tony Twist--when faced with what they considered attacks on their privacy and image. Placing each case in its historical and legal context, Fields examines how sports figures in the U.S. have used the law to regain control of their image. As she shows, decisions in the cases significantly affected the evolution of laws related to privacy, defamation, and publicity--areas pertinent to the lives of the famous sports figure and the non-famous consumer alike. She also tells the stories of why the plaintiffs sought relief in the courts, uncovering motives that delved into the heart of issues separating individual rights from the public's perceived right to know. A fascinating exploration of a still-evolving phenomenon, Game Faces is an essential look at the legal playing fields that influence our enjoyment of sports.

Now in its thirteenth edition and part of the prestigious Common Law Library, Gatley on Libel and Slander has established itself as the definitive work on defamation law and practice. The work has been comprehensively updated and restructured throughout to provide a thorough examination of the English law of defamation and other media and communications claims, including malicious falsehood, privacy, data protection and harassment - both substantive and procedural. New chapters on serious harm and the defences of truth, honest opinion and publication on a matter of public interest Fully revised chapter on pre-trial applications including preliminary trials of meaning Dedicated chapters on misuse of private information and data protection Review of all key case law including Lachaux, Stocker, Serafin, Lloyd v Google, Economou, Wright v Ver, Wright v Granath, Corbyn v Millett, Duchess of Sussex v Associated, and Soriano v Forensic News Consideration of legal developments in Commonwealth and common law jurisdictions In addition to providing detailed commentary and expert analysis of the substantive law, it offers comprehensive guidance on the procedural aspects of bringing an action. This advice is complemented with example forms and precedents for issuing proceedings and summaries of key damages awards, making it both a practical and authoritative reference. The authority on the law of defamation with expert analysis of the law and all significant developments in libel and slander, malicious falsehood and privacy. Detailed coverage of the relevant procedure for practising defamation law - serving as a one-stop reference at every stage of an action. Examines the defamatory statement including slanders actionable, publication, identifying the person defamed and addresses the question: who may sue or be sued? Looks at the various available remedies including compensatory, aggravated and exemplary damages. Commentary on related causes of action such as malicious falsehood, misuse of private information and other causes arising from statements. Explores available defences with discussion of honest comment, absolute and qualified privilege, publication in public interest and more. Comprehensive examination of the procedure for bringing an action from interim injunctions and particulars of claim to counterclaims, apologies, the trial and appeals. Relevant cases from other jurisdictions with commentary on their relevance to UK law and procedure, including decisions from Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Discusses the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and the continuing effect of the Human Rights Act on defamation law. Provides forms and precedents for issuing proceedings, statements of case and settlement and reproduces relevant excerpts of key statutes. Includes an appendix with statutes, procedural rules and damages awards.

Duncan and Neill is a leading authority on defamation law and other related types of action, and as such is an essential edition to the legal library of all practitioners specialising in this area, as well as students/academics and generalists who require a clear overview of the subject. It is a concise and comprehensive work on defamation, but also covers privacy, misuse of private information, malicious falsehood, harassment and data protection. Previous editions have been cited frequently by first instance and appellate courts. The new fifth edition will cover developments in the law and practice of the areas covered in the book since the last edition, including: * The latest law and practice on the determination of 'meaning', and the approach of the courts to publications on social media following the Supreme Court decision in Stocker v Stocker * What the 'serious harm' test means in light of the Supreme Court decision in Lachaux v Independent Print Ltd * How the 'public interest' defence looks after the Supreme Court decision in Serafin v Malkiewicz * Developments in cases with an international element, including on jurisdiction and the 'libel tourism' provision * Up-to-date guide to practice and procedure, following the effective abolition of jury trial for defamation cases and the creation of the 'Media and Communications' List * Covers key developments in related causes of action, eg claims for misuse of private information and for harassment, and the data protection regime as it applies to publication cases

Should international law be concerned with offence to religions and their followers? Even before the 2005 publication of the Danish Mohammed cartoons, Muslim States have endeavoured to establish some reputational protection for religions on the international level by pushing for recognition of the novel concept of 'defamation of religions'. This study recounts these efforts as well as the opposition they aroused, particularly by proponents of free speech. It also addresses the more fundamental issue of how religion and international law may relate to each other. Historically, enforcing divine commands has been the primary task of legal systems, and it still is in numerous municipal jurisdictions. By analysing religious restrictions of blasphemy and sacrilege as well as international and national norms on free speech and freedom of religion, Lorenz Langer argues that, on the international level at least, religion does not provide a suitable rationale for legal norms.

This book explores recent legislative activity which highlights the phenomenon of "libel tourism," whereby litigants bring libel suits in foreign jurisdictions in order to take advantage of plaintiff-friendly libel laws.