Tom Bower Tom Bower Thomas Michael Bower (born 28 September 1946) is a British writer known for his investigative journalism and for his unauthorized biographies, often of business tycoons and newspaper proprietors. His books include unauthorised biographies of Robert Maxwell, Mohamed Al-Fayed, Conrad Black, and Richard Branson. A book about Richard Desmond remains unpublished. His book, "", won the 2003 William Hill Sports Book of the Year. Bower's parents were Jewish refugees who fled Prague after the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 and arrived in London later that same year. After attending the William Ellis School in Hampstead, Bower studied
Seditious libel not a defence. The common law offence was punishable in the UK with life imprisonment. Parliament abolished the offence of sedition and seditious libel in 2009. However, there continue to be similar offences in other statutes, such as the Terrorism Act 2000, which criminalises threats of action which are designed to "influence the government" or "to intimidate the public or a section of the public" for "the purpose of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause". In Canada, seditious offences are defined by sections 59 to 61 of the Criminal Code. A seditious offence can be punished by imprisonment up