On 9/11/07, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
Ask anyone who's been libelled if they want everyone in the world to be able to read said libel.
Libel is another matter entirely. If the accusations against someone are false, then something should, of course, be done about it. I don't expect there are many such false accusations that haven't been shown to be false (or, at least, unproven)
The bar for libel of non-public figures is very low if I understand it correctly. And that bar varies greatly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. In some jurisdictions, truth is not a defense. And then there are right to privacy laws, which are often intermixed with libel laws, and to which truth is not a defense. Further, I'm sure there's lots of stuff on the arb com "evidence" pages which are downright false.
I'm also not sure to what extent US libel laws cover opinion pieces of non-public figures.
So I wouldn't use the word libel, as I'm not sure it does apply. But I'm not sure it doesn't apply either.