First Brit Prosecuted Over Twitter Libel

Tasha26 writes "A former town Mayor, Colin Elsbury, made legal history by being the first Brit to pay damages for libel on Twitter. His tweet on polling day said 'It's not in our nature to deride our opponents however Eddie Talbot had to be removed by the Police from a polling station' [and was held to amount] to pure election slur. The Twitter libel was settled at Cardiff High Court with total bill hitting £53,000 (£3,000 compensation + £50,000 legal fees). The fine works out at more than £2,400 per word. After Courtney Love's recent £260k settlement in a Twibel case, this case reaffirms that anything posted in the public domain is subject to libel laws."

Comments

Re:For all that's wrong with Britain's libel....

[pushing-robot]

Yeah, I'm not seeing the problem here. I mean, what was the alternative?

"You lied about someone in an attempt to smear their reputation? Yep, that's libel all right.
Oh, but you did it on Twitter? Ah, that's totally different! No harm done then!"