U.K. Libel Suit Hits U.S. Web Site

Ridge2001 writes: "CBS Marketwatch is running a story describing how a Canadian mining company has used British libel law to have material removed from a U.S. web site. Greg Palast, an American journalist who writes for Guardian Unlimited's Observer newspaper in the U.K., wrote an article which was defamatory, under British law, to Canadian mining company Barrick Gold. The Observer has deleted the article from its archives; Palast still has a copy at his U.S. web site but has been forced to snip the portions which were found defamatory. An uncensored version is still available here." Whatever you think of the content of the story, remember that this sort of chilling effect could make sites in any country afraid to report controversial news.