Full Description
THE ERA OF WIN AT ALL COSTS,
WHETHER LEGAL OR ILLEGAL, IS UPON US. THIS IS THE ERA OF THE SLAPP CASE.
Strategic Lawsuits Against
Public Participation, or SLAPPs, are designed to intimidate and silence critics
of the wealthy and powerful by confronting them with aggressive and rapacious lawyers,
massive legal costs, private investigators, PR companies and hackers.
Billionaire oligarchs,
corporations and those with skeletons in the cupboard are laundering their
reputations by suing for libel - even when what's been written about them is
true. Their money can overwhelm opponents. Worse still, they compel the media
into self-censorship - and freedom of speech and the right to information are
the victims.
In this timely, insightful
and often shocking book, veteran media lawyer David Hooper explores how the
power of money enables the super-rich to crush their critics through SLAPPs. Fully
updated with a new chapter on how Mohamed Al Fayed and his enablers used the
law to cover up his horrific campaign of abuse, Buying Silence explains
how those with something to hide try to stop you knowing about it, how their
lawyers help them do it and - most importantly - what the government urgently
needs to do to stop them.
