Gagging criticism part deux

Blogging about the activities of outsourcing companies used by government and local councils seems to be becoming a precarious activity. It seems to be likely to get you gagged if you criticise them however minor, discuss them on forums and so on. Look at what has happened to CarerWatch. These private companies have a tendency to go straight to the host without going to the forum/blog why this has happened. What part of the law are they using?

Unlike Government bodies who are not allowed to sue you for defamation. They cannot hide behind “commercial confidentiality”.

In the Bookbinder judgement the courts decided a local authority did not have the right to maintain an action of damages for defamation. The courts decided that it was contrary to the public interest that organs of government, whether central or local, should have the right to sue for libel because any governmental body should be open to uninhibited public criticism and to allow such actions would place an undesirable fetter on freedom of speech.

To reiterate the point, freedom of speech and the ability to criticise is integral to democracy and that is precisely why central and local government can’t sue for defamation. I am sure the DWP spits venom when it sees the criticism about the department but they cannot sue.

But with the continued privatisation and contracting-out, with the creation of a dystopian present/future, freedom to criticise is under threat. Again, an important part of our civil liberties is to be able speak out without the worry of being gagged and therefore denied a voice, silencing critics into submission. Surely private companies should be, rather like central and local government, be exempt from the libel laws?

And with the turbo-charged privatisation of the welfare state then the freedom to criticise will be curtailed. Private companies will be able to gag you with the bourgeois defamation laws and corporate confidentiality, combined with wielding power and control over people and what they say/write (claimants who speak out and expose the behaviour of contracted-out providers of the benefits system… and the result being they get gagged…)

There will be increased secrecy, transparency and accountability will be fundamentally eroded.

The exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 are likely to maintain high levels of secrecy. Corporate financial reporting requirements are virtually irrelevant to gaining information concerning investment strategies, supply chains, subcontractor relationships, employment practices and contract performance. (New Labour’s Attack on Public Services, Dexter Whitfield).

And that’s what the future holds….

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