Libel law shake up

A long-standing rule of libel law that each publication can form the basis of a new cause of action could be scrapped to bring the law up to date with the age of the internet. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has proposed abandoning the multiple publication rule in favour of a single publication rule, which would allow only one libel action to be brought in England and Wales against particular defamatory material. Currently, material is deemed to have been published every time an online article is downloaded reader clicks on a webpage. The MoJ consultation paper, Defamation and the Internet, published last week, asks whether the current limitation period of one year from the “date of publication” should be extended to three years from the “date of publication” or to one year from the “date of knowledge”.