Arlen Specter: “I am introducing the Free Speech Protection Act of 2008 to address a serious challenge to one of the most basic…”

“I am introducing the Free Speech Protection Act of 2008 to address a serious challenge to one of the most basic protections in our Constitution. American journalists and academics must have the freedom to investigate, write, speak, and publish about matters of public importance, limited only by the legal standards laid out in our First Amendment jurisprudence, including precedents such as New York Times v. Sullivan. Despite the protection for free speech under our own law, the rights of the American public, and of American journalists who share information with the public, are being threatened by the forum shopping of defamation suits to foreign courts with less robust protections for free speech. These suits are filed in, and entertained by, foreign courts, despite the fact that the challenged speech or writing is written in the U.S. by U.S. journalists, and is published or disseminated primarily in the U.S. The plaintiff in these cases may have no particular connection to the country in which the suit is filed. Nevertheless, the U.S. journalists or publications who are named as defendants in these suits must deal with the expense, inconvenience, and distress of being sued in foreign courts, even though their conduct is protected by the First Amendment.”