Net libel case with UN

The US journalist at the heart of the controversial recent Internet libel case - Gutnick v Dow Jones & Co - has taken his case to the Geneva-based human rights committee of the United Nations, it was announced at the conference.

Bill Alpert, a writer for the New York-based business magazine Barrons, has filed a petition challenging the Australian high court decision not to decline jurisdiction in the libel case brought by Melbourne businessman Joseph Gutnick.

In what his Australian lawyers described as an unprecedented move, Mr Alpert will allege that his right to free speech guaranteed by article 19 of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights has been breached by the Australian high court's decision earlier this year.

Mr Gutnick has brought defamation proceedings against the magazine and the journalist in relation to an article that appeared both in print and on Barrons' Web site.

The publishers argued that owing to the limited circulation of the article in Australia, the case should be heard in a US court, where a public figure defence would be available.

Such a defence would not be available in Australia.

But the court ruled that Australia was the appropriate forum.