Vitorino set to soften stance on defamation

Date: 03/04/03

By Peter Chapman

EU JUSTICE chief António Vitorino could be about to grant the European publishing industry a reprieve from the risk of EU-wide claims against alleged defamation.

The move - if it is finally adopted by commissioners and then by justice ministers - could preserve the rights of newspapers such as the UK's Mail on Sunday, which published a story about the private life of German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder that was outlawed in his own country.

Vitorino's aides confirm he has bowed to pressure from other Commission departments and industry that warned of legal chaos under original plans in a draft law - known as Rome II - that decide which country's law takes precedence in international 'non-contractual' legal disputes.

That is because it had a specific section on defamation which would have forced judges in the country where companies are based to impose judgements for defamation made in countries where the plaintiffs live.

Critics said this would have left publishers - who are bound by the laws of the land in which they are based - wide open to claims for defamation anywhere their magazines, books or newspapers are read.

In order to sell products outside their own borders they would have to meet the laws of every other EU state - or risk the consequences.

However under a new compromise, sources say the law in the publishers' own country would now take precedence.

"The idea now prevailing is to recognise the right of the publishers' country's judge to stick to his own national law," a Commission official said.

He said this would be the case when there was a "conflict of national law concerning public order".

This would likely encompass large differences in defamation rules between the UK and Sweden and the rest of the EU, he explained.

Industry experts gave a guarded welcome to the move, adding that they would need further clarification on how it would work in practice.

Angela Mills, executive director of the European Publishers' Council, said: "It will be a question of interpretation and it's not clear at the moment how this 'public order exception' will apply.

"If the Commission is proposing that the law of the country of publication should apply this would go some way towards meeting our concerns about any conflict with existing internal market legislation."

EU Justice Commissioner António Vitorino could be about to grant the European publishing industry a reprieve from the risk of EU-wide claims against alleged defamation.