This legislation effectively overrules the recent New York Court of
Appeals decision in Ehrenfeld v. Mahfouz and protects New Yorkers
and New York based publishers and media outlets from local enforcement
of foreign defamation judgments designed to squelch their freedom of
expression. Libel laws in overseas jurisdictions lacking the free speech
and free press protections guaranteed by the New York and United States
constitutions are more often designed to discourage and inhibit free
expression, rather than promote it. Despots and terrorist networks
whose activities have been exposed by American authors and news
organizations have increasingly turned to such jurisdictions to obtain
defamation verdicts which they could never obtain in an American court
in order to harass and intimidate American authors and journalists.
