Senior US lawmakers target 'libel tourism'

Senior US lawmakers unveiled legislation Tuesday to shield US journalists, authors and publishers from "libel tourists" to protect freedom of speech.

The measure would prevent US federal courts from recognizing or enforcing a foreign judgment for defamation that is inconsistent with the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech.

"England, Brazil, Australia, Indonesia and Singapore are just a few of the countries whose weak libel protections have attracted libel lawsuits against American journalists and authors," Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy Leahy said as he unveilled the bill, who also called the situation a "threat to American free speech (that) must end, and the time to act is now."

Though Britain is included on the blacklist, the coalition government has answered the public outcry for reforming its law on libel by pledging a review, and considering Lord Lester's defamation bill as a model for reform.

Published on May 27, the bill was introduced by Lord Lester of Herne, a Liberal Democrat peer, who wrote in The Sunday Times that "The time is over-ripe for Parliament to replace our archaic law with one that gives stronger protection to the freedom to share information and ideas and that is fit for the 21st century."

Over 500 writers and 50 organizations in Britain have signed the libel reform cam-paign petition, said its website.

Agencies