A three-year campaign to reform Britain's "chilling" libel laws is days away from victory after the government did a U-turn on a key proposal which would prevent companies using defamation laws to silence their critics...the government has tabled a fresh amendment that will prevent big businesses from suing newspapers, academics or citizens unless they can first prove "substantial financial loss" has been caused...The amendment will mean a new law forcing a court to strike out an application to sue "unless the body corporate can show that the publication of the words of matters complained of has caused, or is likely to cause, substantial financial loss to the claimant". Mike Harris, head of advocacy at Index on Censorship said: "We are cautiously optimistic that this should deliver the type of reform we were hoping for to stop corporations bullying individuals.".