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press coverage:
LM press releases
PRESS RELEASE
Thursday 6 November 1997
ITN vs LM Libel Case Website Launched
A website dedicated to the libel case between Independent Television
News and LM magazine is launched today. The site contains the
legal documents issued in the case, extracts from the original
film footage, press coverage from around the world and relevant
articles about the case.
Visitors are invited to send messages of support, sign the Free
Speech Appeal, contribute to the LM Libel Appeal and submit queries
to LM's legal co-ordinator. It is also intended to place as many
documents as are made available during disclosure as is possible
on the site. The site is accessible from midday on Thursday at:
www.informinc.co.uk/ITN-vs-LM
LM Editor Mick Hume said:
This website will allow all web users to view and discuss an important
news story ITN would rather they did not see at all. LM stands
by its story and we want the world and the World Wide Web to know
why.
For further details, please contact Claire Fox on 0171 278 9908
or email: webmaster@www.informinc.co.uk
Notes to Editors:
ITN has sued LM's editor and publishers for libel over a story
about their award-winning pictures of a Bosnian camp which appeared
in February's issue of LM. ITN demanded that every copy of February's
issue was pulped.
The controversy centres on 'The Picture that Fooled The World',
an article by freelance German journalist Thomas Deichmann. The
article raises serious questions about ITN's award-winning pictures
of Trnopolje camp in Bosnia, first broadcast in August 1992.
ITN's latest legal submission accuses the magazine of 'express
malice' - a charge which carries the threat of punitive damages
if accepted by the courts. That document is discussed in an article
by Helen Searls in the latest issue of LM also available on the
site. The issue of 'express malice' represents an ominous new
use of the libel laws to impose yet further restrictions on free
speech. |
