What is the UK law on 'anonymous' libels published online?
If I write to a UK newspaper the paper's lawyer will check it out for anything actionable because if the paper published the letter they would become become liable for any libel it contained. But I can comment on Yahoo news stories "anonymously" and allege all sorts of things against named or easily identifiable people. We had one on Yahoo today alleging that a girl who had her jail sentence quashed had slept with the judge to achieve that, Now that is libel in anybody's book and in the UK it could be a criminal libel because there is a deliberate intent to do harm to two reputations.
How is this possible? How can 'trolls' get away with it?
If a libelled person demanded that Yahoo compensate them for publishing the libel what would Yahoo's defence be? Could Yahoo be forced to reveal the troll's identity?
A lot of questions - sorry!