Renowned author and journalist Mihir Bose calls upon legislators to amend UK libel laws, calling them the worst in the world, expressing concern during the Peoples’ Awards in 2025.
Reports Zahra Jawad
On March 6th, 2025, members of the community came together at the House of Commons to celebrate the achievements of notable figures who have collectively contributed to the betterment of our citizens.
During the event, Mihir Bose expressed his glad tidings about the growth and success achieved but also raised concerns that governments and the media needed to do better to protect the public interest, as over the years censorship has become an increasing epidemic within the industry.
“Media is in a very bad state, not only are newspapers not selling they are disappearing.”
Bose said one of the main problems not encouraging good journalism was the country’s libel laws.
He claims they had been crippling journalists for years and that Britain had one of the worst libel laws in the world. So much so it had become known for being the country which encourages libel tourism where those who can afford rich lawyers could come and use the libel laws to stop the truth from emerging.
Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, better known as SLAPPs, have been a psychological and financial weapon to wear down journalists, using legal loopholes to prevent investigation about matters of great public interest.
These plaintiff-friendly laws have often put a heavy financial strain on the defendants, draining them of resources which forces many publishers to settle, and leads to many publications never seeing the light of day.
Survey findings in 2020 from the Foreign Policy Centre saw that 50% of the journalists they interviewed faced threats or some kind of coercive actions by the entity they were investigating.
Bose himself mentioned he had also been a victim of Britain’s draconian libel laws, as under its tradition the burden of proof was put on the defendant to prove that the alleged defamatory statement was true, whereas other legal systems put that burden on the plaintiff.
Several instances of impactful journalism have been lifesaving, and Bose mentions how imperative it is to safeguard the rights of these journalists.
History has shown instances of notable figures who have consistently spearheaded projects that have played a crucial role in saving lives.
Mihir explained the hardships felt by Harrold Evans, editor of the Sunday Times, a paper Bose worked for, who in the early 70s heroically took up the fight to expose the truth about thalidomide.
In his speech, Bose recalled the infamous thalidomide scandal, which was dubbed the “biggest anthropogenic medical disaster ever.”
A drug that was marketed to be beneficial to aid the pangs of pregnancy, ended up instead producing foetal deformities.
More than 10,000 children were born with severe deformities, such as phocomelia, alongside thousands of other mothers suffering from miscarriages.
The team of journalists faced hurdles of red tape and threats, taking three years to publish the truth about the drug.
Evans and his team fought the UK attorney general at the time, even taking the case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to see its publication.
This is just one of the many tragic cases Bose highlighted in his speech, where he called upon UK legislators to amend these broken legal loopholes that allow the rich to terrorize the freedoms of journalists to investigate stories of vital public concern.
Despite the introduction of the Defamation Act in 2013, an amendment that strengthened free speech by raising the threshold for defamation claims, costs to bring these to court remain high.
Experts of the law agree with what Bose said.
Dr Andrew Scott of the London School of Economics highlights that high legal costs in defamation cases create a barrier to justice, particularly for those severely affected, leaving room for wealthier individuals to manipulate the laws in their favour.
Mihir Bose says he hopes that amendments can be made to the country’s libel laws to rejuvenate the future of journalism which will hopefully provide a pathway for better, and stronger journalism.
