My friend Jonathan alerted me to the Sense About Science campaign to prevent libel law being used to stifle scientific debate. Jonathan writes:

The broadcaster and science journalist Simon Singh is being sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association as a resulting calling their remedies 'bogus'. There is a campaign to support him and you can sign a petition.

I've signed the petition because I believe freedom of speech is essential to the health of society. Some may remember an earlier post on the limits of freedom of speech where I quoted Noam Chomsky:

In brief, speech should be protected up to participation in imminent criminal action. So if you and I go into a store to rob it, and I say "shoot," that's not protected.

Also, think of the money that'll be saved in lawyers' fees if we stop these unnecessary libel trials!