Seditious libel

Seditious libel is a criminal offence under common law of printing written material with seditious purpose – that is, the purpose of bringing contempt upon a political authority. It remains an offence in Canada but has been abolished in England and Wales.[1]

American scholar Leonard W. Levy argues that seditious libel "has always been an accordion-like concept, expandable or contractible at the whim of judges".[2]

  1. ^ L.L. Edwards, J.S. Edwards, P. K. Wells, Tort Law for Legal Assistants, Cengage Learning, 2008, p. 390. "Libel refers to written defamatory statements; slander refers to oral statements. Libel encompasses communications occurring in 'physical form'... defamatory statements on records and computer tapes are considered libel..." [ISBN missing]
  2. ^ Levy, Leonard W. (1985) Emergence of a Free Press. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 8. [ISBN missing]