Cases

Jameel (Yousef) v Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

Comment

This is a bold decision, and appears to be the first case of an otherwise bona fide libel claim being stayed as an abuse of process, in circumstances where the publishers could have but chose not to argue forum non conveniens at the outset of the case. The Court made no order as to the costs of the proceedings up until the time when Dow Jones served its evidence of the limited number of 'hits' in this jurisdiction. The decision is also interesting for the Court's endorsement of Eady J's view (expressed in Multigroup Bulgaria [2001] EMLR 737 at [24]) to the effect that an article defaming an identifiable individual would in principle be actionable even where no one reading it had prior knowledge of its victim: a newspaper could 'simultaneously create and besmirch an individual's reputation'.

Areas of work

Defamation
Human Rights
Media Law

Also