With tax rises, spending cuts and deficits the new government would seem to have far more immediate concerns than reforming the libel law there is an increasingly strong lobby that reform is vital if we are have an open and democratic society. English libel law is expensive, complex and very difficult to defend against.
Recent cases have brought the issue closer to home for me. In 2007 Dr Henrik Thomsen, a Danish radiologist, raised concerns about the safety of a drug used in MR scanning at a conference in Oxford. Rather than entering a scientific debate over the matter the manufacturer, General Electric, brought a libel case against him. This is far from unique, a more widely publicised case arose in 2008 when Simon Singh of the Guardian was sued by the British Chiropractic Association when he attacked claims to treat colic, ear infections and asthma in children with spinal manipulations.
Though both cases have been dropped libel law threatens to stifle scientific debate