The American Civil Liberties Union may not often see eye-to-eye with the American Center for Democracy, a research group with neoconservative credentials. But the two organizations are united on at least one thing: their distaste for British libel laws, which they say are being exploited to suppress free speech in Britain and beyond.British courts have always been friendlier to libel claimants than their U.S. counterparts. Until recently that did not matter much to U.S. authors or publishers. But now the Internet makes anything published in America almost immediately available in Britain, too. American critics say so-called libel tourists — people with little connection to Britain — are using that to justify suing for libel there.
http://nytimes.com/2009/05/25/business/media/25iht-libel.html
Unlikely Allies Say U.K. Libel Laws Limit Speech
The American Civil Liberties Union may not often see eye-to-eye with the American Center for Democracy, a research group with neoconservative credentials. But the two organizations are united on at least one thing: their distaste for British libel laws, which they say are being exploited to suppress free speech in Britain and beyond.