Read our letter signed by 181 Scottish and International writers calling on the First Minister to include defamation reform in the 2019 Programme for Government
August 12, 2019181 writers and campaigners including Ian Rankin, Sara Sheridan, Christopher Brookmyre, Karen Campbell, Christine de Luca, Zoe Wicomb, James Robertson and Zoe Strachan have signed a letter authored by Scottish PEN calling on the Scottish Government to introduce a Defamation (Reform) Bill in the forthcoming year of the parliamentary session. Earlier this year, the Government led a public consultation on reform, but it is not clear whether reform will be included in the 2019 Programme for Government, leaving us with a law that is both inadequate and outdated. Every moment reform is delayed, writers, academics, scientists, journalists and ordinary citizens exchanging their views online remain at risk from being threatened by legal action on the most minor of issues.
With your help, Scottish PEN has been leading reform for the last three years and following the public consultation we are closer than we have been in the 23 years since the last meaningful reform. This is an opportunity to better protect free expression for everyone in Scotland, with key reforms including a serious harm threshold to dissuade trivial cases or those brought solely to silence criticism; a statutory public interest defence; increased protections for defenders against vexatious legal action; better online protections and a single publication rule to ensure the time period within which a defamation action can be brought does not restart every time a link or post is shared or viewed online.
But to ensure reform is not delayed defamation reform needs to be included in the 2019 Programme for Government, empowering the Scottish Government to introduce a Defamation (Reform) Bill in the forthcoming year of the parliamentary session.
Every moment reform is delayed, writers, academics, scientists, journalists and ordinary citizens exchanging their views online remain at risk from being threatened by legal action on the most minor of issues.
181 writers and representatives from across Scotland, Scottish PEN members and representing PEN centres from around the world joined us to call on Nicola Sturgeon to prioritise reform. The full letter and signatories can be read here:
A PDF of the following letter can be viewed here
Dear First Minister,
Please commit to reforming defamation law in the upcoming Programme for Government to ensure free expression is protected in Scotland.
The Scots Law of defamation is out of date, inadequately protecting free expression, and is in urgent need of reform. The protections the law currently extends are woefully insufficient when faced with the ways people across Scotland communicate, source information and reach out to others, especially online. To ensure free expression is protected, defamation must be reformed as soon as possible. Recent movements towards reform, including the Scottish Government public consultation, which followed an earlier evidence session at the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee, are to be welcomed. In the face of the clear consensus around the need for reform, the Scottish people need guarantees that this work will be followed by meaningful legislative action.
Reform is long overdue, but we now have growing consensus as to what needs to change. This includes a serious harm threshold to dissuade trivial cases or those brought solely to silence criticism; a statutory defence of publication on matters of public interest; increased protections for defenders against vexatious legal action; better online protections and a single publication rule to ensure the time period within which a defamation action can be brought does not restart every time a link or post is shared or viewed online.
In the face of the clear consensus around the need for reform, the Scottish people need guarantees that this work will be followed by meaningful legislative action.
A quote from the Letter to First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon
Every one of these reforms will strengthen free expression and ensure that public debate is not controlled or stifled by powerful vested interests. Last year, we sent a letter signed by over 150 writers and campaigners, ahead of the Programme for Government for 2018/19, where we welcomed the public consultation. However, we maintain that analysis of the January 2019 consultation should not delay a commitment from the Scottish Government to introduce a Defamation (Reform) Bill in the forthcoming year of the parliamentary session. To this end, we call on you to commit to bringing forward legislation to reform defamation in your Programme for Government for 2019/20.
Protecting free expression cannot wait any longer. Every moment reform is delayed, writers, academics, scientists, journalists and ordinary citizens exchanging their views online remain at risk from being threatened by legal action on the most minor of issues.
By committing to include legislation reforming defamation law in the 2019 Programme for Government, you will send a powerful signal to people across Scotland that free expression is both valued and protected and that Scotland prioritises laws that accurately represent the country as it is, not the country it used to be.
Yours sincerely,
Johan Adamson
Jim Aitken
Liz Albert
Candace Albornoz
Colin Alexander
Jason Allardyce
Frank Mackay Anim-Appiah
Jane Archer (Scottish PEN Trustee & Writers at Risk Committee Co-Chair)
Callum Baird
Megan Bauld
Germaine Beaulieu
Salah Beddiari
Rui Beja
Gaston Bellemare
Michèle Bernard
Rosaleen Bertolino
Dr Justin Borg-Barthet
David Bourn
Aileen Brady
Billy Briggs
Chris Brookmyre
Carole Browner
David Buchanan
Bruce Buswell
Ron Butlin
Regula Butlin
Jenni Calder (Scottish PEN Membership Secretary)
James Campbell
Karen Campbell
Drew Campbell (Scottish PEN Trustee)
Gerard Carruthers (Scottish PEN Trustee)
Samina Chaudhry
Sandra Cisneros
Anne Clarke
Ken Cockburn
Carlos Collado Seidel
Luigi Colucci
Anne Connolly
Martin Connor
John Coutts
Joan Craig
Moira Dale
Claudia Daventry
Christine de Luca
Meaghan Delahunt
Alan Dickson
Ana Diogo
Emma Doherty (Scottish PEN Trustee)
Janet Dube
Chik Duncan
Lynn Dunlop
Lloyd Duong
Rob Edwards
Dorothy-Grace Elder
Lizzie Eldridge
Margaret Elphinstone
Islam Elsanov (Chechen PEN)
John Faithfull
Vicki Feaver
Una Flett
Roddy Forsyth
Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin (Irish PEN)
Bashabi Fraser (Scottish PEN Trustee)
Iain Galbraith
Magi Gibson
Alastair Gilchrist
Fiona Graham (Scottish PEN Vice-President)
Kylie Grant
Jennifer Gray
Steven Gray
Stephanie Green
Michael Halmshaw (PEN International)
Dennis Haskell AM (Perth PEN Centre)
Colin Henderson
Joy Hendry
Diana Hendry
Jenny Henry
Lillian Higgins
Judyth Hill
Martin Hillman
Jill Hollis
Tom Hubbard
David Jarvie
Jamie Jauncey
Charley-Kai John
Brian Johnstone
Stephen Jones
Danson Kahyana (PEN Uganda)
Karin Deutsch Karlekar (PEN America)
Lucina Kathmann (PEN International Vice-President Emerita)
Michael John Keenan
Martin Laing
Lindsay Latona
Joan Lennon
Moira Lindsay
Pippa Little
Gerry Loose
Cat Lucas (English PEN)
Eileen MacAlister
Carl MacDougall (Scottish PEN President)
Dugald MacGilp
Ciara MacLaverty
Rhona MacLeod
Iain Maloney
David Manderson (Scottish PEN Secretary & Writers for Peace Committee Chair)
Maria Marques
Lesley Marshall
Michael Marten
Felicity Martin
Donald Martin
John Matthews
Cailean McBride
Mary McCabe
Pauline McCorquodale
Scott McCulloch
Euan McGrory
Rosalind McInnes
Alastair McIntosh
James McIvor
John McLellan
Sean McMenemy
Greg Michaelson
Pauline Michel
Ricky Monahan Brown (Scottish PEN Trustee)
Fiona Montgomery
Graham Morgan
Alastair Muir
Gordon Muir
Derek Munro
Colin Murray
Anne Murray
David Myers
Hege Newth (Norsk PEN)
Kriss Nichol
Liz Niven (Scottish PEN Writers in Exile Committee Chair)
Jane Overton
Brendan Paddy
Nycolas Parker
Maria Pereira
Robert Philip
John Pilkington
Maria Pires
Tom Pow
Aurea Quesada
Jean Rafferty
Ian Rankin
Dorothy Rankin
Diane Régimbald
Sue Reid Sexton
Dr Mario Relich (Scottish PEN Trustee)
Lesley Riddoch
Richard Roberts
James Robertson
Stewart Sandison
Andrew Murray Scott
Kenneth Shearer
Sara Sheridan
Dennis Smith
Leela Soma
Leslie Stevenson
Zoe Strachan
Richard Strathie
Joan Strouse
Gabriel Súnico
Aniko Szilagyi
Ian Taylor
Andrew Tickell (Scottish PEN Trustee)
Alexander Tiffin
Brian Underwood
Vonne van der Meer
Félix Villeneuve (PEN Quebec)
Erik Vlaminck
Zoe Wicomb
Andy Wightman MSP
Nik Williams
Susan Windram
Robert Wishart
June Wishart
Thomas Woods
Yorn Young
Maria Zuffova
Total number of signatories is 181