Leading authors call on Scottish government to bring forward draft defamation reform bill

The letter calls on legal affairs minister Annabelle Ewing MSP to bring the draft bill published in December by the Scottish Law Commission (SLC) into Parliament without delay and begin the process of scrutiny and voting the bill into law.

The SLC recommended reform and modernisation of Scotland’s defamation law - which has remained largely untouched since 1996 - in its final report published in December, which included the draft bill. The letter calls on the Scottish government to “back defamation reform by bringing forward a bill that will protect free expression across Scotland”.

Reforms outlined by the SLC include the establishment of a serious harm threshold to dissuade trivial cases, or those brought solely to silence criticism; a statutory defence of publication on a matter of public interest; a single publication rule to ensure the time period within which an action can be brought does not restart every time a link or post is shared or viewed online; as well as establishing in statute the principle that public authorities cannot bring actions against individuals.

Other signatories include David Pratt, Merryn Glover, Lady Joyce Caplan and the 2017 John Maddox prize winner, Dr Riko Muranaka who has been the target of legal action in Japan for her work to put the evidence for the safety of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine clearly before the public. The letter states that “without reform these laws will continue to threaten civic debate and journalistic endeavour through the continued risk of legal action”.

Nik Williams, project manager at Scottish PEN, said: “Without reform, our laws will remain outdated and unable to robustly protect people who speak out across Scotland, especially via online channels.

“Depending on the existing laws to govern online expression is akin to expecting telegram laws to adequately protect smartphone users. With the reforms put forward by the Scottish Law Commission we can start to modernise and strengthen laws in Scotland to protect free expression for all, irrespective of wealth, influence or access to legal representation.”