Melville House Books

Orlando Figes

The seriousness of Orlando Figes‘ folly continues to settle in in the UK, and more people seem to be trying to use the incident to prompt a serious reconsideration of the country’s libel laws. The latest is an editorial in the New Statesman by one of its editors, Martin Bentham, who says Figes has joined the ranks of “the most notorious abusers of Britain’s libel laws” (according to Bentham, Jeffrey Archer, Jonathan Aitken, and Robert Maxwell). “His behaviour has highlighted, perhaps more vividly than ever, the need for libel reform in this country.”

Robert Service and others had reason to fear Figes’ “blizzard of menacing legal threats which he issued to his critics during his recent dispute,” says Bentham. “As a recent report by Lord Justice Jackson revealed, many people facing libel action choose to settle without fighting the case because of the way legal bills can spiral by up to four times the actual cost in the event of defeat.”

Bentham notes, “On the back of his latest book on life under Stalin, Figes describes “a world where everyone was afraid to talk” because of oppression. It’s a sad irony that his own actions were intended to achieve the same effect.”

A sad irony, perhaps, but maybe a useful one for reformers.

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.