[A-List] UK trade union militancy & state reprisals

["Keaney Michael" <Michael.Keaney@xxxxxx>]

Rail union leader threatens newspaper with anti-stalker law

Clare Dyer
Thursday October 3, 2002
The Guardian

Legal action against the Sun last year has paved the way for Bob Crow,
the leader of the RMT, the main rail union, to use anti-stalker
legislation to try to stop personal attacks on him by London's Evening
Standard newspaper. It is a case which could have dramatic implications
for the press.

Louise Christian, his solicitor, has written to the paper warning she
will seek a high court injunction and damages unless it stopped the
"unlawful harassment".

A spokeswoman for the Standard denied the paper had harassed Mr Crow
over yesterday's tube strike.

A court of appeal ruling last year has established that harassment by
newspapers may not be limited to doorstepping, but may also cover
articles which cause "alarm and distress".

When the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, intended to deter
stalkers, was going through parliament, there was no suggestion that it
could cover newspaper articles. But in August 2001, appeal judges
refused to strike out a claim under the act for damages against the Sun
by Esther Thomas, a former civilian clerk with City of London police,
who received race hate mail and had to leave her job after the paper ran
stories blaming her for disciplinary action against three police
officers.