Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

Lord Black of Brentwood Excerpts

Tuesday 25th February 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Black of Brentwood (Con)]

My Lords, I must declare an interest in this subject as the executive director of the Telegraph Media Group and draw attention to my other media interests in the register.

I have been involved in this issue throughout the process, since it first became apparent that there was a real problem in the debate that my noble friend led on this last summer, at the launch of the Private Member’s Bill by Mike Nesbitt in Belfast in September and in Committee on this Bill. Throughout that time, some powerful arguments have been put forward in favour of change, both here in Parliament and by civil society organisations in Northern Ireland, the media and academia among them. There have been strong arguments about the impact on jobs, to which my noble friend referred and about the impact on ordinary people who, in the phraseology of the mortgage adverts, could find their home at risk for something that they have simply written on Twitter or Facebook. There is the damage that could be done to the creative economy in Northern Ireland and to academic freedoms in higher education as well as the real dangers of media plurality.

We have heard many other arguments advanced today by my noble friend Lord Lester about the difficulties that the judiciary will face, and my noble friend Lord Lexden made reference to the difficulties that litigants will face, and those seeking to protect their reputation. So there have been many powerful arguments that in my view, given the gravity of the situation, should be met with equally strong ones as to why the new Defamation Act should not apply in Northern Ireland, particularly as this issue impacts on the most fundamental human right—free speech. If there are arguments, we should hear them today, but all we have had is a deafening silence: silence from the Northern Ireland Executive and silence from the political establishment in Westminster, which I fear simply wants to shy away from the issue on the basis, as the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, says, that this is a devolved matter. In Committee, my noble friend the Minister majored on this point, comparing the situation in Northern Ireland with that in Scotland, missing the fundamental point that there is a different libel law in Scotland. That has nothing to do with devolution, but is to do with development of the common law that dates back many centuries. False comparisons such as that will not do. Deafening silences will not do, because freedom of speech for an important part of our United Kingdom is at stake.