Citizens Advice gagged under UK libel laws

Citizens Advice has effectively been gagged from publishing research that would protect consumers because of the UK's libel laws.

At yesterday's parliamentary meeting hosted by the Libel Reform Campaign, MPs heard how the charity had been investigating the legality of tactics employed by some firms hired by High Street stores under civil recovery procedures.

But despite devoting an entire year's research and campaign contingency budget to ensure that the research was not libellous, continued threats of legal action by these companies, many of which are solicitors' firms, meant Citizens Advice felt it was unable to publish its findings in full.

At yesterday's meeting, the Guardian reported that Richard Dunstan, social policy officer at Citizens Advice, said: "The potentially huge cost of defending a libel action - however unjustified that action might be - hands well-resourced corporations a powerful weapon against third sector organisations, such as Citizens Advice, trying to shine a spotlight on practices that are unfair, detrimental to the public interest, or even illegal: just the threat of a libel action can be enough to shut down criticism."

The result is Citizens Advice, which is currently in discussions with the Government to take on consumer protection work currently carried out by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and Consumer Focus, has been unable to stop companies which it claims are breaching consumer law.