Billionaire's libel action over article read by 21 people fails

THE HIGH Court in London has thrown out a libel case involving a Ukrainian billionaire, Dmitry Firtash, who wanted to sue a Kiev…

THE HIGH Court in London has thrown out a libel case involving a Ukrainian billionaire, Dmitry Firtash, who wanted to sue a Kiev newspaper over an article that was read by just 21 people in the United Kingdom.

The ruling could have major implications for so-called libel tourism, the practice whereby the world’s wealthy seek to use British courts for defamation actions.

Mr Firtash had launched libel proceedings in London against Public Media, the publishers of the Kyiv Post, over an article about his gas company, RosUkrEergo AG, which he alleges implies that the business is run corruptly.

Another billionaire, Saudi Arabia’s Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Ali Al Amoudi, is pursuing the US-based Ethiopian Review and is also suing in London.

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The court refused to accept jurisdiction in the Firtash case, saying the Ukrainian businessman had no substantial links with the UK, in contrast to the case of an earlier action by Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky, who had been able to “show real and substantial connections”.

The Ukrainian had no residence in the country, no active business interests and had given no information about how often he visited London.

He had “erroneously” given a business colleague’s Knightsbridge address when lawyers lodged papers in the case, said the court, adding it was not quite, but almost, an abuse of process.

Last night organisations that have lobbied for a change in the UK’s law to prevent so-called libel tourism welcomed the ruling.

Jonathan Heawood, director of English PEN, said: “This is obviously good news for free speech, but the libel chill still remains. This phenomenon of libel tourism is a form of legal harassment, which discourages responsible investigative journalists from speaking the truth to power. This is not a problem we can fix by tinkering with legal procedures: parliament needs to overhaul our entire system.”

Mike Harris of Index on Censorship said: “A Ukrainian billionaire tried to drag a Ukrainian newspaper all the way to London to fight a libel case here. has rightly thrown this case out saying it was tenuous in the extreme.”

US president Barack Obama last year signed a Bill protecting the country’s writers from foreign libel judgments.

The Speech Act prevents foreign libel judgments that are not in line with the United States constitution from being enforced. – ( Additional reporting: Bloomberg)