Hi Fakeidpoint,
On the question of how expeditious is expeditious, as pointed out in this article - whilst there is no guidance on defamation law, The Terrorism Act does include guidance on removal of internet postings with regard to the encouragement of acts of terrorism and the dissemination of terrorist publications. One would imagine that most regard incitement to terrorism as at least, if not more serious an offence than defamation. So we would suggest that two business days - bearing in mind that many web operations are under-resourced - would seem like a reasonable time period. But we are prepared to be persuaded that a slightly longer or shorter time period might be appropriate. We are of the view that this needs clarifying, as are many, many other people. We are calling for the law to be updated - we are prepared to listen, though, rather than simply tell others what the solution should be.
With regard to viewing conversations in the round, as we've said, we think it would be sensible to ask judge and jury to view internet conversations as exactly what they are - conversations - so an off the cuff joke remark that is obviously and rapidly refuted and revealed to be exactly that, should not be regarded as defamatory. In other words juries should be directed to take into account the whole discussions and not just individual postings on threads. If not, litigious persons could be encouraged to instiute proceedings on the basis of a single post, when, in fact, the damage to their reputation is neglible. Such a change in the law, would, in effect, be an acknowlegdement that the internet is a different medium to print - a conversation rather than just the written word - and therefore requires judges and juries to treat it as such - clearly though, a libel that severely damaged someone's reputation would still be a libel.
On the third point, our position, as I've outlined a few times now (and Littlelapin has too) is that contentious posts could be withdrawn until the site had a chance to contact the poster directly and confirm that they were happy to take on the liability. You ask what's stopping us taking this course of action now and the simple answer is that the law is, sadly. (Though I'm glad you seem to acknowledge that it's a workable solution - progress at last ). As you know well, complainants have the right to sue who they like and under the current law, as we understand it, if a libel appears on Mumsnet - whether or not someone else takes full responsibility for that libel - we can be sued. Saying that someone else was prepared to stand by the comments, is (absurdly we agree) no defence, if the complainant chooses to sue us (and not the third party) and a libel has been committed.
On point four and the issue with regard to transfering the burden of proof to the complainant, though we do see where the those who advocate this change are coming from on this, we agree there are some good arguments against adopting this change and we are not, nor have ever actually advocated it. We raised this issue merely because you implied that our view on libel was somehow out on a limb somehow, whereas in fact many would wish for a more radical reform of the libel law than the one we are suggesting.
On your point 5, "you appear to complain that the libel law affects everyone" the point we are making is fairly obvious - because it's so easy to be a publisher these days (as opposed to the pre-web world) - blogs, bulletin boards etc - many people are at the mercy of an unclear libel law, as opposed to just a tiny minority of traditional media owners.
And finally, on your sixth point - you are wrong, I've never been a full-time journalist and I am not a part-time journalist now - MN is more than enough for me. I was once a football and cricket writer but I was very much part-time - weekends and the odd week night only. (Thinking about it, I may well have to sue you for such an insinuation). My dh is a indeed a journalist but, like many women these days, I do try to think for myself as much as I can manage and not just borrow his (no doubt as you say, "biased") opinions.
Anyway that's me and my personal biases sorted out - what about you?
Hopefully, you can acknowlege at last that we are making some proposals and not just complaining. Of course, whether you agree with them is entirely another matter. Needless to say you're more than welcome to voice your dissent here on Mumsnet.
Best,
MNHQ