Singh wins leave to appeal

Simon Singh is a UK science writer currently being sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association following a critical article on chiropractic treatments published in the Guardian.

Yesterday Simon went to court to fight for his right to appeal the preliminary ruling by Judge Eady. Silé Lane of Sense About Science reports:

Dear friends

I'm very pleased to tell you that earlier today in the Royal Courts of Justice Simon was granted permission to appeal the ruling on meaning in his libel case with the BCA. Read more about the judgement here. The appeal will probably be early next year. In the meantime, we will be busy working on libel reform.

Simon said: "This is a great result, but we now have to win the appeal . and then we have to win the trial. So there is still a long battle ahead in my case and in reforming the libel laws. Thank you to everyone for all your support and please use today's success to encourage others to sign up to supporting libel reform."

BBC Newsnight came along to the meeting in Westminster last night and interviewed Simon and other supporters of the campaign for their report on the chilling effects of England's laws; watch it here (the report starts 34 minutes in).

Simon, Tracey Brown and John Kampfner of Index on Censorship will be discussing today's judgement and the chill of libel laws on free discussion of science and evidence tomorrow, Thursday 15th October, at the City University London and Association of British Science Writers debate on Science Journalism and Libel Law. For more information see here. I hope to see some of you there.

All the best


SÃle

This is great news, but as Simon says, there is still a long way to go. To stay in the loop regarding the Singh case and other attacks on free speech by our abject libel laws, visit the indispensable Jack of Kent blog.