Last week I found out from Robin Yassin-Kassab that the article I had written for the forthcoming issue of Critical Muslim had to be dropped upon the instructions of Hurst Publishers. My article as well as one taking on George Galloway was considered to be an invitation to a libel suit.
British libel law favors the accuser since the burden of proof falls on the author of an article. In other words, Hurst would have had to spend money on a legal defense aimed at showing my article did not defame someone like Yale professor David Bromwich who has developed a second career as a Bashar al-Assad apologist (okay, go ahead and sue me now, motherfuckers.) I think that Robin was a lot more upset than me. I expect very little from print publishers and generally prefer to write for online publications. In fact, despite my profound admiration for the work that Robin and co-editor Ziauddin Sardar as well as my willingness to write for them in the future, my blog gets far more traffic than the print edition of CM. To this date, the Unrepentant Marxist has gotten 3,595,480 views and averages about 40,000 per month. For some writers, a print publication is proof that you are a real writer—something that amounts in my eyes to the diplomas the Wizard of Oz hands out to Dorothy’s companions. Looking at the op-ed page of the NY Times on most days, I can say that being in print is no guarantee that you have something to say. In any case, here is the article. You be the judge. full: http://louisproyect.org/2014/06/04/i-run-afoul-of-stringent-british-libel-laws/ _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
