The unfavorable libel laws of the British Commonwealth are going global. Rachel Ehrenfeld, a journalist and the author of "Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed and How to Stop It," found this out when Khalid bin Mahfouz, a Saudi businessman she portrayed as funding terrorism through sham charities, sued her in London, even though her book wasn't published or sold in bookstores there. The British court claimed jurisdiction -- and rendered a $100,000 default judgment against Ms. Ehrenfeld -- based on the purchase of fewer than two dozen books in the U.K. through online booksellers.

The case is hardly alone. The Washington Post and New York Post found themselves in separate defamation suits in Canada where jurisdiction was based on online access to their publications. And Dow Jones settled a similar defamation suit in Australia. Canada and Australia follow the British rule in libel suits, which assumes that allegedly libelous statements are false until the author and publisher prove otherwise. In the U.S., plaintiffs have the burden of proving that they were defamed.

Join us for an Authors Guild Foundation panel discussion that brings together Ms. Ehrenfeld with leading media lawyers from the U.S., Great Britain and Australia.

RULES, BRITANNIA! The Growing, Chilling Reach of Commonwealth Libel Laws, an Authors Guild Foundation panel discussion moderated by Victor Navasky.

Victor Navasky, Moderator, chairman of the Columbia Journalism Review and publisher emeritus of The Nation, is the author of "Kennedy Justice," the American Book Award winner "Naming Names," "A Matter of Opinion," and he is co-author with Christopher Cerf of "The Experts Speak: The Definitive Compendium of Authoritative Misinformation." Navasky has also served as a Guggenheim Fellow, a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation and Ferris Visiting Professor of Journalism at Princeton. He is director of the George Delacorte Center for Magazine Journalism at Columbia University.

Floyd Abrams is a partner in the New York law firm of Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP and is the William J. Brennan, Jr. Visiting Professor of First Amendment Law at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. His book, "Speaking Freely: Trials of the First Amendment," was published by Viking Press in 2005.

Peter Bartlett is the Head of the Minter Ellison Media and Communications Group in Melbourne. He chairs the Media Committee of the International Bar Association and coordinates the Intellectual Property Communications and Technology Section of IBA. He co-chairs the Communications and Technology Committee of LAWASIA, an association of lawyers in the Asia Pacific. He is a member of the International Committee of the Media Law Resource Center, and Vice President of the Melbourne Press Club.

Rachel Ehrenfeld is the Director of the New York-based American Center for Democracy and the Center for the Study of Corruption & the Rule of Law. She is the author of "Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed and How to Stop It," "Evil Money," and "Narcoterrorism." Her articles have appeared in numerous publications such as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, the Jerusalem Post, and the Wall Street Journal and she is a frequent guest on The O'Reilly Factor, and CNN, NBC, CNBC, FoxNews, and other TV programs.

Mark Stephens is a partner with Finers Stephens Innocent in London. His practice covers a broad canvas of litigation involving the media, including defamation and intellectual property law. Much of his work is multi-jurisdictional and appellate. He was appointed the First Chair of the Policy Board of the Internet Watch Foundation. He is the Honorary Solicitor to the Contemporary Arts Society.