speech and respect - College of Social Sciences and International ...

Perverse Penalties
litigation over defamation or invasion of privacy typically pits celebrities
against the tabloid press in a battle each side both wins
(publicity and circulation) and loses (reputation, emotional distress,
and money). 97 Just as women are raped twice—the second time by
defence counsel—so speech victims may suffer more from the
repetition, elaboration, proof, rebuttal, and publicity of the trial.
Indeed, only the legal regulation of speech reenacts the crime
verbatim, usually before a much larger audience. Bill Roache, who
played Ken Barlow on "Coronation Street" for 31 years, sued The
Sun for a centre-page article entitled "Boring Ken was girl-crazy
stud," which portrayed him as smug, boastful, wooden, lucky not to
have been fired, a joke to scriptwriters, and universally hated by the
cast. Roache testified: "I felt humiliated and so embarrassed that I
didn't want to see people or talk about it"—but of course he did both
in the courtroom. Although he had disregarded certain accusations
to spare his wife, newspapers covering the trial reported in salacious
detail his alleged one-night stand with the iate Pat Phoenix and his
"seduction" of Jennifer Moss on the floor of his house after a party.
Full of emotion, Roache reproached The Sun's counsel "for behaving
like The Sun. I didn't bring this [up] . . . and I don't see why I
should have to go through it." Awarded £50,000 and costs estimated
at £200,000, Roache complained "We've been through hell
and back." The Sun's legal officer was unrepentant: "We offered Bill
Roache £50,000 about a month ago. He could have had an apology
and could have had his costs paid. I think he has been through this
last week's ordeal ... for little or no reason." 98
Even when legal regulation does not court evasion or aggravate
harm it constructs and encourages deviance. Ever since the Edenic
myth we have known that prohibition arouses desire. 99 Iran has
banned all videotapes except children's cartoons, and the Force to
Combat the Corruption of Society confiscated more than 20,000
unlawful tapes in Teheran in a seven-month period, but Iranians still
can buy anything, including hard-core porn. 1 Regulation confers
moral salience. Skinheads flaunt swastikas; German youth sing
"Deutschland iiber Alles," wear Nazi insignias, and give the Sieg
Heil salute; the KKK dresses in white hoods and burns crosses—all
because the state response evidences public outrage. The editor of
the National Front Bulldog challenged the government to prosecute
him, warning that otherwise "we will print a special victory issue
. . . with even more racialist articles." True ideologues welcome
punishment as martyrdom, which can only enlarge their entourage.
After losing his house to satisfy a $12.5 million damage award for
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