Inforrm's Blog

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Law and Media Round Up – 8 June 2026

Donald Trump’s legal team has refused to provide financial records requested by the BBC in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit over a Panorama documentary about the 6 January 2021 Capitol riots. Trump claims the programme damaged his reputation and business interests by misleadingly editing parts of a speech he gave before the unrest. Continue reading

Case Law: Rodoy v Optical Express, Court finds claimant who lacked remorse for historic scam is still a fraudster – Adham Harker

Optical Express accused of 'character assassination' against consumer rights activistThe judgment in Rodoy v Optical Express Limited [2026] EWHC 1219 (KB) is a fascinating one – despite running to 411 paragraphs and over 40,000 words.  Ms Rodoy operates a website and various social media groups/accounts called ‘Optical Express Ruined My Life’ (‘OERML’), which warns of the dangers of laser eye surgery.  That is despite never having been a customer of Optical Express. Continue reading

The Office for Students vs the University of Sussex. Part Five, Section 28 in Reverse – Julian Petley

Beyond the specific issue of speech which may (or may not) be protected under Article 10 read in its entirety lies a wider problem, and that is that the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, particularly as interpreted and enforced by the OfS, may operate as a kind of reverse Section 28. This was a highly controversial clause in the Local Government Act 1988 which prohibited local authorities and state schools from “promoting homosexuality” or teaching the acceptability of same-sex relationships as a “pretended family relationship”. Continue reading

The Office for Students vs the University of Sussex. Part Four, Lessons from Conchita Wurst – Julian Petley

Critics of the three-step process laid out in RA24 argue that the proportionality test needs to inform each step and not just the final one. Such critics include Wonkhe, Professor Naomi-Waltham Smith of Oxford University and James Murray, legal director at Doyle Clayton solicitors. In order to illustrate why this is necessary in order to comply fully with the HRA they draw on a recent case occasioned by the Austrian drag artist Conchita Wurst winning the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest. Continue reading

The Office for Students vs the University of Sussex. Part Three, Free Speech Absolutism – Julian Petley

England's 'free speech tsar' named in announcement to one ...

Given the manner in which the OfS conceived of and carried out its duties in relation to Sussex’s conditions of registration (E1), it is perhaps unsurprising that it reached the Final Decision that it did. However, this does not augur well for how it is going to conceive of and carry out its duties under the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act. Continue reading

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