THE argument by Lipstadt and her friends that it was I who was trying to suppress her freedom of speech was often parrotted by her slower witted friends.

The fact is that Lipstadt and her backers have spent twenty years trying to suppress my freedom of movement, my freedom of research, and my freedom to write what I find to be true. (See my draft history of this campaign, Global Vendetta: I shall eventually publish it with all the underlying documents).

They have blackmailed my publishers, burned down my printers, threatened violence against editors, and physically assaulted me. They have threatened to riot at universities, like the Oxford Union which five times in one year invited me to debate or lecture. They have prevailed upon hotel and restaurant owners to cancel contracts for rooms where I was due to talk to private audiences. They have caused me to be imprisoned, arrested, stopped at international borders, and publicly vilified; they have attempted to ruin me financially, and piled secret pressure not only on my publishers until today not one of international repute is left that dares to publish my books; they have also blackmailed literary agents not to act for me, and threatened violence against British, Danish, Norwegian and other printing works that print my books.

In England they have forced big distributors and bookstore chains like WH Smith not to order my books, and where local branches have nevertheless ordered in stocks for their customers, the central head office has instructed them to revoke the order. They have used advertising pressure on major newspapers to force them not to print or review my books. They have applied direct pressure to broadcast, television and radio stations not to allow me to appear on programmes, either live or pre-recorded, and they have ensured that my presence in existing films -- like the History Channel documentary on the Hitler Diaries -- is mysteriously cut out of later editions.

The PBS film The Holocaust on Trial is the same as the 90 minute UK version -- except that to meet the demands of the traditional enemies of free speech in the USA the US version is 45 minutes shorter: every passage where, in the interests of balance, I was shown to be prevailing in my cross examination of Lipstadt's witnesses has vanished from the PBS North American version.

I could go on, but won't. In short, the libel laws of England are designed not to prevent free speech, but the unhindered dissemination of lies and defamations, and Evans knows it -- or if he does not he will soon find out.