Recently we shared with you the congressional initiative to protect free speech for Americans abroad. This move was inspired by New York legislation to protect people like Rachel Ehrenfeld, who was the victim of a harsh libel law suit in the U.K. Ehrenfeld's story, told in MPI's film The Libel Tourist, is one of many that prompted the New York legislature to take a closer look at this problem.
Now, the U.S. Senate has unanimously passed the SPEECH Act, which will uphold First Amendment provisions for American authors and publishers, protecting them from the enforcement of frivolous libel law suits filed in countries that do not have strong free speech protections. Senator Patrick Leahy commented:
"The freedoms of speech and the press are cornerstones of our democracy...They enable vigorous debate, and an exchange of ideas that shapes our political process. Foreign libel lawsuits are undermining this informational exchange. While we cannot legislate changes to foreign law that are chilling protected speech in our country, we can ensure that our courts do not become a tool to uphold foreign libel judgments."
Ehrenfeld has been enthusiastically committed to ending foreign libel suits and protecting Americans abroad, and she praised the passage of the bill, which she said "protects all Americans in the uninhibited, robust, and wide-open manner that the First Amendment was designed to guarantee." She has also graciously acknowledged the vital role The Libel Tourist played in raising public awareness about these foreign threats to free speech. "Thor Halvorssen, the Moving Picture Institute, and Jared Lapidus' film have been most helpful in this important struggle to protect and defend our First Amendment rights." The Libel Tourist, she says, "is a masterpiece, and should be viewed by every American and by freedom-loving people worldwide."