The Defamation Bill does not need this “Leveson amendment”

A proposal to enact Lord Justice Leveson's media regulation recommendations has been tacked on to the Defamation Bill, threatening to scupper years of work by libel reform campaigners. It is bad law, and should be dropped.

By David Allen Green

The Defamation Bill is close to becoming the law in England and Wales.

However, a last-minute amendment in the House of Lords appears to jeopardise the whole Bill and so it may never become law at all. After five years of struggle and hard work by the libel reform campaign, there may not now be a Defamation Act 2013.