International Libel and Privacy Handbook: A Global Reference for Journalists, Publishers, Webmasters, and Lawyers

Citation

Hannabuss, S. (2007), "International Libel and Privacy Handbook: A Global Reference for Journalists, Publishers, Webmasters, and Lawyers", Library Review, Vol. 56 No. 2, pp. 155-156. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530710730385

Weighing the balance between what we can say about others (our freedom of speech) and what they wish to keep private (their right of privacy), considering whether fair comment might be defamatory or in the public interest, identifying a higher fault standard for journalism about public concerns, examining the protection of sources and of ongoing legal process, and defining the overlap between libel and privacy in traditional and internet media – all these are recognizable aspects of that fast‐changing field of law covered by this handbook.

The Bloomberg Press business list, like that of The Economist, is always keeping an eye on, and, with this handbook, edited by Charles Glasser who is media counsel to Bloomberg News, they have produced an international winner. This is one of those legal books which has a sharp practitioner approach, clearly written by a range of experts who know the issues and their jurisdiction well. Contributors represent legal practices with extensive experience of media and internet‐related law, such as Denton Wilde Sapte, Covington & Burling, the Wong Partnership, and Van Bael & Bellis. They produce a series of chapters of a consistently high relevant standard and clarity.

It is going to be most useful and of greatest interest to journalists and editors, and to people studying (students and lecturers) what they do. Media lawyers will probably know the broad outlines and webmasters will be satisfied only up to a point with what is only a minority report on the internet here. Of particular value, however, for a every reader is an excellent introduction called on “how to use this book”. If your heart sinks at those words, do not let it, because it is a model “advance organizer” for the book as a whole, pinning down 20 or so key questions – on defamation (i.e. libel and slander and associated things) and privacy.

Most of the book, dealing with the Americas and Asia and Europe country‐by‐country (not every one by the way), follows this structure clearly and helpfully. With a useful index as well, this means that readers can trace similar arguments for Canada and Australia, India and France and Spain, and the others, reading through and/or picking out sections they most need. This allows readers to compare issues – like libel by implication, product disparagement, fault standard, fair comment, privilege, prior restraint, public interest, privacy, disclosure of sources, and internet applications – easily and systematically.

These legal issues will readily be recognized as central to the field. The handbook wisely avoids repeating the many handbooks for journalists as such, and emphasizes the international and comparative character of such law. Many jurisdictions have both federal and state or provincial law, mixtures of civil and criminal law, with defamation protections and privacy rights embedded in constitutional, statutory, and case law. This is made clear for Brazil and India, Belgium and Germany and Switzerland. The growing influence on EU signatories of the European Court of Human Rights is rightly discussed, and contrasted with the more self‐regulatory approach of North America (above all in an interesting final chapter on the evolution of privacy law, its growing convergence with defamation, and its growing globalization).

Distinctions between jurisdictions – data protection law in the UK and safe harbour in the USA, the scope of privacy to include honour and personality in Italian and French law, opportunities for corporations to protect themselves against economic and reputational harm from product disparagement, where good faith or malice, competence or negligence might affect a legal judgement – come out more and more as you work your way through the book. A handy cross‐reference chart (legal issues like group libel or right of reply, contempt of court and shield law, privilege for government documents and law applied to internet BY country) appears at the end.

No book (or at least very few) is perfect, so I think more might have been made of this comparative approach by providing a systematic discussion of the issues. The last section (“issues of global interest”) does this in part – with that chapter on the emergence of privacy and where it is going – but others there merely drift. Otherwise competent discussions of the internet and of publishers lose sight of defamation and privacy, a chapter on online publishing, content aggregators and internet service providers is much needed instead, and a chapter on fair use wanders into intellectual property rights. If there is a dialectic between stakeholders – those who comment and disclose, on one side, those who seek to protect and keep hidden, on another side, and those who try to hold the ring, on a third – then that deserves proper attention, but the issues at stake are not just trademarks and copyright. If ever a new edition is published, it simply must address weblogs, currently one of the sharp ends for anyone trying to balance libel and privacy.

The other entirely convincing chapter at this stage is one on the enforcement of foreign judgements on other jurisdictions, where correctly cases like Matusevich and Yahoo! set up the issues well. Kurt Wimmer's analysis of the Yahoo! case on page 341 is masterly and suggests the way a follow‐up book – of case studies and analysis, by legal practitioners in the field, like these – could and should be produced for an eager market. Another point worth raising is that of the countries covered. It is good to see China and India, Russia and Singapore included, above all with a sensitivity to the cultural factors at work shaping the law, but, for issues of such global relevance, Africa (above all South Africa). Nigeria and Egypt merit inclusion.

Beyond that, for readers keen on fields like telecommunications and broadcasting (it is mainly generic “journalism”, mainly press‐related here), the search will go on for the ideal book. Glasser the editor is a true practitioner as his practical preface confirms – think internationally, put accuracy ahead of speed, and do not confuse the right to publish with what is right to publish – make good sense when knowing the law before it gets to the court case is best. Overall, then, for the price, a bargain, and good for the practitioner and academic shelves.