Matt Wells, Media Correspondent
Monday April 3, 2000
The Guardian

A radical internet magazine has become the first victim of a libel case which has been seen as a threat to freedom of speech on the web.
Outcast, which branded itself a "queer current affairs" publication, had its site shut down by its internet service provider, Netbenefit, after a complaint about material posted there. Netbenefit said it had acted "with great reluctance".

Last week, Demon Internet agreed to pay £15,000 damages and £230,000 in legal costs to Laurence Godfrey, a physicist who said he had been defamed by two anonymous messages posted on the net.

Internet firms are concerned about the implications of the Demon case. If it had not been settled out of court, it would have established whether ISPs are subject to the same libel laws as other media. By settling, Demon appeared to concede it was unlikely to win.

Outcast expressed disappointment at Netbenefit's decision. Its editor, Chris Morris, said: "What we do is hard hitting but it is carefully written not to be defamatory." He believed Netbenefit had overreacted, and said the magazine would continue to be published in print.

Netbenefit acted after a complaint by the Pink Paper, another gay publication, about the Outcast site.

Alison Sparshatt, the managing director of Netbenefit, said: "We have no wish to get involved in monitoring websites. We are interested in providing and hosting web services." She added that the Demon case had "far-reaching implications" and the government needed to clarify the law.

Ms Sparshatt compared the role of ISPs to that of a telecommunications firm, saying the latter was not responsible in law for slander over the telephone.

Mike Ross, the Pink Paper's publishing manager, denied stifling free speech and defended his firm's actions.

He said: "Chris Morris contacted us with a range of statements on which he sought comment. We felt they were defamatory and libellous.

"All we did was to send a legal letter to the ISP and his printers. We said that if he printed anything libellous or defamatory, we would take legal action."