womansplaceuk.org/slurs-slander-libel/
Slurs Slander & Libel
In the course of the last year Woman’s Place UK (WPUK) has been under almost relentless attack both on social media and in real life.
We believe that many of the comments made about us are defamatory and could qualify as libel and/or slander.
We are often encouraged by our supporters to take legal action to challenge these slurs and defend our reputation, including when they have been made about individual members of WPUK. On occasion, we have done this by sending pre-action legal letters and this has usually resulted in the withdrawal or deletion of the defamation.
We are very grateful to our supporters in the legal field who have advised us pro bono on these cases and continue to do so.
However, the pursuit of a legal case is fraught with problems (not least the time and cost) and we have often chosen to ignore comments made by those petty individuals trying to deflect people away from our campaign. To tackle every scurrilous tweet or post would take us away from the important work of winning our five demands.
We are all juggling other responsibilities and simply don’t have the time or energy to challenge every slur through the law.
We are lucky to have so many supporters who often challenge these slurs on our behalf and use our record to demand retractions.
We are incredibly grateful to you all.
We believe that, on this issue, this approach is as – if not more – effective than lengthy, costly court proceedings which would give our detractors more glory than they merit.
We never rule legal action out and where we have taken steps we have been rewarded. But we think our campaign is best won in the court of public opinion not a court of law. And, with your support that is where we continue to focus our time and our energy.