Just last week the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the SPEECH Act, protecting American journalists, authors, and publishers from the enforcement of frivolous libel suits filed in countries that do not have our strong free speech protections.
Yesterday, the bill went to the U.S. House and quickly passed with bipartisan support. The legislation is now on its way to President Obama's desk, to be signed into law.
Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, who fell victim to a libel suit in the U.K., has steered a national campaign to end libel tourism for the past two years. Ehrenfeld's story, told in MPI's film The Libel Tourist, prompted the New York legislature to take action. Since 2008, several other states have followed suit, including Illinois, Florida, California, Tennessee, Maryland, and Utah. The SPEECH Act is the culmination of her national effort.
What's more, the effort is being echoed abroad. Britain has been feeling the pressure for quite some time to re-examine its libel laws, and has now stated its plans to draft a revised libel tourism bill for March of next year.
Ehrenfeld has graciously acknowledged how The Libel Tourist has had a significant role in raising public awareness about 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."