New York passes law against 'libel tourists'

Marvelous news for a change! New York State has passed, with
unprecedented swiftness, the law protecting writers like Rachel
Ehrenfeld from
"libel tourists" like the billionaire Saudi who has been after
her because of her expose of his terrorist-funding in her book.
To every one of my readers who got involved in trying to get this
passed, my thanks and my love. You did it again.

Congratulations Rachel! You have been instrumental in creating a
situation which now protects every one of us who is trying to
fight against the evils of our time.

http://www.standwithus.com/app/iNews/view.asp?ID=305

New York passes law against 'libel tourists'
The state will protect authors against foreign libel judgments
after a US journalist was sued by a Saudi businessman in London
Times Online and PA February 29, 2008

Politicians in New York have acted to protect the state¹s writers
and publishers from so-called libel tourism after an English
libel judgment went against an American author.

The Libel Terrorism Protection Act was given a unanimous passage
in the state Senate in Albany, the New York Law Journal reported.
The new bill was introduced after the New York Court of Appeals
ruled in December that the state¹s laws did not protect Rachel
Ehrenfeld, an American author, from a possible bid by a Saudi
Arabian businessman to enforce a summary judgment issued by the
High Court in London.

The bill is intended to amend New York¹s so-called "long-arm
statute" in order to give the state¹s courts jurisdiction over a
foreign libel claimant who won a judgment against an author or
publisher with sufficient physical or financial ties to the
state.

It would allow New York¹s courts to declare that a foreign
judgment was unenforceable if the courts decided that the libel
laws in foreign jurisdictions did not protect freedom of speech
and the press to the same extent as the laws in New York and the
US.

The New York Law Journal reported that the Bill had made
³unusually swift² progress since being introduced into the
legislature and said new legislation usually took several months,
or even years, to reach the floor of the Assembly or Senate.

Dr Ehrenfeld claimed her book, Funding Evil, in which she makes a
series of allegations about the charitable activities of wealthy
Saudi businessman Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz, was protected under
the freedom of speech section of the US constitution.

But in a 17-page ruling by Judge Ciparick in December, the New
York Court of Appeals in Albany ruled that it did not have
jurisdiction over Mr Mahfouz as they found he had not carried out
any business in the state.

The Sheikh has always vehemently denied any link with terrorism,
or terrorist support or funding, and claimed that the book was
defamatory in suggesting that he supported al-Qaeda and terrorism
either directly or indirectly.

In January, Democratic Assemblyman Rory Lancman and Republican
Senator Dean Skelos introduced the ³Libel Terrorism Protection
Act² to remedy what they see as a deficiency in the law.

Mr Lancman said: ³This legislation will give New York¹s
journalists, authors and press the protection and tools they need
to continue to fearlessly expose the truth about terrorism and
its enablers, and to maintain New York¹s place as the free speech
capitol of the world.²

Mr Skelos added: ³The ability to expose the truth about
international terrorist activities is critically-important to the
global war on terror.

³These foreign courts are trampling the First Amendment
protections guaranteed to American writers and journalists by our
Constitution and this legislation will ensure that they cannot
infringe upon our freedom.²

Senator Martin Golden, who supports the legislation, said: ³Under
the Libel Terrorism Protection Act, writers and journalists would
have foreign defamation suits declared unenforceable in New York
unless the foreign law provides the same free speech protections
guaranteed under our Constitution.

³In effect, we are giving New Yorkers a chance to have their fair
day in court.²

In court papers filed last year, Dr Ehrenfeld described Mr
Mahfouz as a ³serial libel tourist².

Her book was never published in the UK but 23 copies entered
England.

Mr Mahfouz, who denies all the allegations in the book about the
funding of terrorist organisations, turned to English law and
brought a successful libel action against her three years ago.

Mr Mahfouz has had a series of victories in English courts, and
in August last year, the Cambridge University Press withdrew all
copies of Alms for Jihad, a book which took a similar line to Dr
Ehrenfeld.

But some American librarians have refused the publishers¹ request
to withdraw the book from their shelves and surviving copies are
for sale for hundreds of pounds on the internet.

Read this article at:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article3461623
.ece
_________________
"The conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction of every form of dissent is the ideal of the Muslim State - This is Islamic Peace"

A moderate Moslem is one who sends others blow themselves up.

Update on this story...

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/03/ny-law-against.html

UPDATE: Rachel Ehrenfeld wrote me and explained it this way,

Alas, The Times lead was misleading. The war is still on --the bill passed unanimously in the Senate only, but is still lingering in the Assembly.

We are doing our best to move it, and hope the Assembly will clear it soon. There is already interest in Congress to adopt a similar law nationally.

NY residents contact your assembly people. The truth tellers are the light in what could be a very dark world. Very dark.

_________________
"The conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction of every form of dissent is the ideal of the Muslim State - This is Islamic Peace"

A moderate Moslem is one who sends others blow themselves up.

Libel Terrorism Protection Bill Passes New York Senate

If you haven’t already heard, last week the Libel Terrorism Protection bill unanimously passed the New York State Senate. This is a significant victory in the process toward this bill becoming law.

As you may recall, the bill was introduced to protect New York authors and journalists from libel lawsuits filed in the courts of foreign jurisdictions. These lawsuits are typically intended to intimidate and silence reporting about terrorism and terrorist-related activities, and they are filed in courts of foreign jurisdictions where free speech and press is not protected to the degree it is here in the U.S.

We do not know how many of you called or emailed members of the New York Senate, but to all of you who did we say “thank you!” You helped make this happen!

We are presenting our Libel Terrorism Protection petition and its nearly 7,000 signees to the New York Assembly, where the bill is still under consideration, currently in the Judiciary Committee.

http://www.actforamerica.org/
_________________
"The conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction of every form of dissent is the ideal of the Muslim State - This is Islamic Peace"

A moderate Moslem is one who sends others blow themselves up.