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May 'disappointed' at upskirting law block
Theresa May says she is "disappointed" an attempt to make upskirting a criminal offence in England and Wales did not progress through Parliament after one of her own MPs blocked it. Conservatives have criticised Sir Christopher Chope for objecting to the private member's bill.
If passed, it could see someone who has secretly taken a photo under a victim's skirt face up to two years in prison. The PM said she wanted to see it pass soon "with government support". Minister for Women, Victoria Atkins, said the government will allocate time for the bill in Parliament to ensure it does not get pushed down the list of private members' bills, which would mean it could some time to return to the Commons.
[...] Sir Christopher has yet to speak out about why he blocked the bill but upskirting victim Gina Martin - who started the campaign for the new law - said he had told her he objected to it "on principle" because it "wasn't debated". She also told the BBC that he said he "wasn't really sure" what upskirting was. "I said, 'well, I can help you with that'," Ms Martin added.
The bill was expected to sail through the Commons on Friday, but parliamentary rules mean it only required one MP to shout "object" to block its progress. Sir Christopher's intervention was met with shouts of "shame" from other MPs.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday June 17 2018, @05:38AM (2 children)
Bullshit. It has often been observed that libel suits are filed in England, despite the supposed "offenses" taking place almost anywhere OUTSIDE of England. There's a reason for that. No rational court would even hear the damned worthless cases anywhere else. No, we don't want libel laws like the UK has. Here, in the US, it is accepted that truth is a defense against libel. I call you a thief, and in fact, you have been convicted of various classifications of theft multiple times, you can't file libel suit for being called a thief. In the UK, you might have a case. Utter bullshit. If you want to sue someone for calling you a cocksucker, you better not be going down on half of the NFL.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Sunday June 17 2018, @03:23PM (1 child)
you can't file libel suit for being called a thief.
Actually, I'm quite sure this is incorrect. You can indeed be sued, regardless of the truth. However, you'll lose that suit easily, and be countersued for attorney's fees.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Monday June 18 2018, @03:22AM
You are correct.
And technically, truth is NOT an absolute defense against all defamatory torts. If the information is true but grossly misleading, taken out of context, and particularly invades the privacy of a citizen by bringing inordinate and undeserved attention, there is a tort of "false light" that could apply.
But false light suits are only recognized in a minority of states these days, and they've become very rare. (And they would be unlikely to apply to a thief who had been convicted multiple times. But in another situation that publicly shamed someone with info taken out of context, there could at least in theory be a successful suit.)