Victory for Free Speech

The British Chiropractic Association have dropped their wrong-headed libel action against Simon Singh. The move follows the decision by the Court of Appeal that Simon's comments, published by the Guardian, were honest comment not a statement of fact.

A delighted Simon says:

"It still staggers me that the British Chiropractic Association and half the chiropractors in the UK were making unsubstantiated claims. It still baffles me that the BCA then dared to sue me for libel and put me through two years of hell before I was vindicated. And it still makes me angry that our libel laws not only tolerate but also encourage such ludicrous libel suits. My victory does not mean that our libel laws are okay, because I won despite the libel laws. We still have the most notoriously anti-free speech libel laws in the free world."

50,000 people have now signed the online campaign for libel reform and with a General Election just weeks away, there is a real chance of significant changes to this repressive piece of legislation.