Libel Laws in England have been used to suppress research, including Swedish results from Francisco Lacerda, Professor of phonetics at Stockholm University.
Professor Lacerda and Anders Eriksson, Professor of linguistics at the University of Gothenburg, published an article in 2007 criticizing the science behind a lie detection system. The Israeli company Nemesysco who designed the system threatened legal action and the article was withdrawn from the publisher’s website.
“We expected a rebuttal of the claims, but in the academic literature, not in court…. That has a suffocating effect on science,” Professor Lacerda said in an interview with the Times newspaper.
Professor Lacerda was recently in London supporting the Libel Reform Coalition which is campaigning for a reform to English libel law. The campaign began following a series of high profile cases brought against scientists including the science writer Simon Singh, who is currently being sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association.
The outcome of the Libel Reform Campaign has implications for scientists worldwide. Commenting on the case in the Times, Dr Singh said: “It is bad enough that English libel law can intimidate British scientists, but when our law begins to silence overseas academics such as Professor Lacerda, then we need to take responsibility for the global chill caused by our legal system.”
Esther Crooks
