There have been a number of recent reports based on some research by Sweet & Maxwell into defamation cases. The Guardian headline is Rise in defamation cases involving blogs and Twitter while The Independent tells readers Online libel cases double. This does not give the full picture.
The figures are curious and their precise provenance unclear. The ‘doubling’ in the number of cases is said to be from seven to 16 – hardly a significant volume of litigation. The reports also state that the number of defamation cases has increased “up 4% to 86 compared to 83 cases the year before” and that there has been a big drop in “reported defamation cases involving celebrities, down 59% from 22 in 2009-10 to just nine in 2010-11.”
