I was alerted to a current news story on libel through the social networking site Twitter where a user called @bengoldacre said "another reminder for journalists internationally of the need to write about NMT's behaviour (and English libel reform) http://bbc.in/99SfQe.
The story can be viewed via the link above and is an interesting case of where someone is using libel laws to 'suppress legitimate scientific discussion'.
It is also interesting to consider the role of Twitter in all of this. The story would not have come to my attention had it not been Re-Tweeted, (a term used on the site to mean that you have Re-Tweeted someone else's tweet to your own followers, complicated to understand if you are not Twitter literate). Twitter has become a source of news for many people and it is understood that more people go on the web for news these days than pick up a newspaper.
See this brief article for an example: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4559162.ece
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