@Mardconsult @Davejf27 @BanTheBBC @Claire_Phipps @wallaceme @GuidoFawkes In my opinion McAlpine should never have sued Sally Bercow, yes.
— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) July 24, 2013
@wallaceme @JackofKent not at all, but perhaps this is tomorrow's conversation. McAlpine behaved, in my view, disgracefully.
— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) January 23, 2014
@cllrilindley @wallaceme @JackofKent pursuing libel cases after apologies and settlements were offered; and worse, selectively pursuing them
— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) January 23, 2014
Sally Bercow "learned the hard way" that a single impertinent and nervy tweet is no defense against serious libel charges. Mr Justice Tugendhat delivered judgment in the case and made precedent to which we are all bound. Twitter may have made publishing vastly easier, but it has not made it responsibility free.
However since the coming into force of the Defamation Act 2013 in England and Wales on January 1 2014, tweets will be required to meet the higher thresholds laid out in the new legislation. How judges interpret the new legislation means that the law will continue to develop. But in the mean time, the McAlpine precedent rests. Media Law NI covered the McAlpine-Bercow case extensively here.
A communication made on Twitter is potentially libellous in England and Wales if it damages someone's reputation "in the estimation of right thinking members of society". It can do this by exposing them to "hatred, ridicule or contempt". This applies also to re-tweets.
