At the risk of not having anything particularly new or interesting to say, I thought I’d better add my voice to the growing throng condemning Alisher Usmanov’s successful bid to shut down Craig Murray and Tim Ireland. It illustrates the vulnerability the blogosphere has to punitive libel laws such as the ones we have in this country; similar action against a newspaper would be much more difficult (although legal action against a newspaper’s distributor has been attempted in the past). Many of us are hosted by small companies who are incredibly vulnerable to the merest threat of legal action. Does such a thing exist? I can only find a single reference to one Out There – and that is to a call for a US version.
UPDATE: The BBC have reported Usmanov buying a blocking stake in Arsenal, but have not covered this angle. Curious, no?
Leave a Reply