Press setback on limitation rule

Bad news for The Times today and for all the other journalists who were hanging on its coat tails: the European Court of Human Rights has thrown out the newspaper’s challenge to a loophole in the Limitation Acts.

Under the rule, which goes back 160 years to the case of Duke of Brunswick v Harmer, an item is republished every time it is downloaded from the internet.

Times Newspapers complained that the internet publication rule breached its freedom of expression under article 10 of the Human Rights Convention by exposing journalists to ceaseless liability for libel.

But the court decided that there was no breach of Article 10 on the facts before it.

“Having regard to this conclusion,” the judges said, “it is not necessary for the Court to consider in detail the broader chilling effect allegedly created by the application of the internet publication rule in the present case.”

Pity. Still, at least the court emphasised that libel proceedings brought against a newspaper after too long a period might well give rise to a disproportionate interference with the freedom of the press under Article 10.

Posted at March 10, 2009 05:26 PM