Savage may sue UK Home Secretary for defamation

Telegraph:

...

Mr Savage, whose real name is Michael Weiner, was included for "engaging in unacceptable behaviour" by seeking to provoke violence and foster hatred.

The DJ, who hosts a far right talk show called The Savage Nation, has described the Koran, the Islamic holy book, as a "book of hate" and questioned the validity of autism, though he has argued some comments have been taken out of context.

Mr Savage said he was outraged to be named alongside hate preachers and "mass murderers" and said he is going to sue the "lunatic Jacqui Smith".

He said: "For this lunatic Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary of England, to link me up with skinheads who are killing people in Russia, to put me in (the same) league with mass murderers who kill Jews on buses is defamation.

"I thought this was a joke or a mistake... How could they put Michael Savage in the same league with mass murderers when I have never avowed violence?

"As a result of this I am going to sue (Ms Smith)."

The media lawyer Mark Stephens, of the London law firm Finers Stephens Innocent, warned Mr Savage could receive as much as £200,000 in damages if he won.

He added: "He would seem to have a very good case. The people on the list who have been banned are supposed to be advocating extreme violence and so to put him into that category is clearly defamatory.

...

Liberals in the UK have a real problem with free speech. Her big mistake was drawing a moral equivalence between speech she does not like regardless of the motive of the speaker. I am not a fan of Savage, but I have never heard him advocate for violence. He can be insulting and intolerant of what he deems as abhorrent behavior, but I have never heard of him advocating mass murder as some on the list apparently have.

But, if I were him I would not have much interest in going to a country with such a goofy Home Secretary.