Government move to tighten up libel laws in bid to counter political bloggers

The Government is to publish a green paper on the reform of the libel laws which will be seen in some quarters as an attempt to gag bloggers such as The Mole, Guido Fawkes and Iain Dale who have been getting under the skin of ministers, according to The Mole on The First Post online news magazine.
But can the Government control the bloggers? Guido Fawkes announced just before Christmas that he was planning to leave Google Blogger so that his blog could evade the British legal system, Governmenrt pressure and privacy laws.
The government does have one card to play. The Mole does predict that some political bloggers are likely to win their fight to be given access to The Lobby.

'British libel laws can bite you no matter where you live' warns Alan Rusbridger

In an article in the New York Review of Books, the editor of The Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, has called for a reform of the British libel laws.
He writes: "News organizations in the Western world, struggling with declining audiences and revenue, are shedding journalists, closing down foreign operations, and cutting costs. But they are also increasingly inhibited by efforts—of government officials and of private corporations—to prevent them from protecting sources or from carrying out difficult investigations.
"Many minds are rightly focused on the regulatory, economic, technological, and legal issues that news organizations committed to serious journalism should be addressing. A starting point would be to reform one of the potential obstacles to their doing so—the British laws of libel. Do not be lulled into a false security by the word "British": in the Internet age the British laws can bite you, no matter where you live."
The Guardian editor discusses the impact of the libel action brought against the paper by Tesco.