A public inquiry into UK libel law has been launched by two leading freedom of expression organizations, Index on Censorship and English PEN.

The organizations will invite publishers, writers, editors, journalists and lawyers for submissions, while round-table discussions will be held. A conference is also planned under the inquiry.

This move coincides with increasing concern England & Wales lower house of Parliament. The United Nations Human Rights Committee has also expressed concern that English libel law discourages “Critical media reporting on matters of serious public interest, adversely affecting the ability of scholars and journalists to publish their work, including through the phenomenon known as libel tourism”.

Wow! I wonder what they would think of Malaysian libel law then? Not to mention criminal defamation and sedition laws, of course…

Apparently, the UK is a good destination for ‘libel tourism‘, “where the rich and powerful can use the law to attack their critics and gag journalists, editors and publishers” (Denis MacShane).

If Malaysian authorities finds out about ‘libel tourism’, they might want to launch a “Libel Tourism Year” or something similar…