On 18 June 2010 Ms Justice Mary Irvine gave judgment in the Irish High Court in the case of Murray v. Newsgroup Newspapers refusing Michael Murray, a serial rapist who had been released from prison, an injunction preventing a number of newspapers from publishing his address and picture. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Month: June 2010 (Page 2 of 5)
This is the presentation given by Professor Alastair Mullis to the Westminster Policy Forum “Libel & privacy law ‐ challenges for reform” on 15 June 2010. It is reproduced with permission and thanks.
The English law of defamation has been the subject of considerable attention, much of it highly critical, over the last couple of years. It has been said that its archaic rules chill free speech generally and academic debate in particular. Our law has been characterised as being out of line with the rest of the world in terms of free speech. London has apparently become the libel capital of the world with droves of libel tourists, or as the Americans would have it ‘libel terrorists’, lining up to sue those who publish books and articles that make an important contribution to public debate. Continue reading
In this feature we revisit some older posts which are still of current interest. In the final part of this three part series, first posted in March 2010, Hugh Tomlinson QC looks at the balancing of reputation and expression in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the implications for domestic law. Part One of the post is here and Part Two is here.
As discussed in the first two parts of this post the case law of the European Convention on Human Rights establishes that the State has a positive Continue reading
This weekend has seen yet more revelations of affairs in the tabloid newspapers, the most prominent being the coverage of the break up of the marriage of Lib-Dem cabinet minister, Chris Huhne. The story was broken by The People which included detailed and intrusive material and photographs. After the event, a number of allegations of “hypocrisy” have been made to justify the intrusion. Richard Littlejohn has a characteristically sensitive and balanced piece in the “Daily Mail”. Charlie Beckett has posted an interesting piece on this issue. Continue reading
This is the presentation given by Professor Gavin Phillipson introducing the Westminster Policy Forum “Libel & privacy law ‐ challenges for reform” on 15 June 2010. It is reproduced with permission and thanks.
I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak today and mean to use this brief paper to highlight what I think are the key issues now in relation to both libel and privacy law. I will take privacy first then and make five brief points. Continue reading
The vexed issue of Conditional Fee Agreements in defamation cases has been discussed on this blog on a number of occasions. The history of the last Government’s attempts to reduce the maximum success fee to 10% was discussed by Justin Rushbrooke in a recent post. Continue reading
The much hyped case of Fiddes v Channel 4 has this morning reached a surprising conclusion with a short statement in open court. At 10.30 a.m, Adrienne Page QC for the Defendants announced before Mr Justice Tugendhat that “the Claimant publically acknowledges that the programme was not faked as previously alleged. The Claimant also withdraws the allegations of malice”.
The statement is no doubt the result of intense negotiations between M LAW (for the Claimant) and Aslan Charles Kousetta (for the Defendants) and is probably more interesting for what it doesn’t say than the little it does. Continue reading
Max Mosley’s application to the Court of Human Rights seeking a determination that there is an Article 8 right to be notified of privacy stories which they intend to publish remains in the news. Last week LSE academic Andrew Scott made available a paper challenging the intellectual basis of the application.
In this regular feature we draw attention to the last week’s law and media news and next week’s upcoming events. If readers have any news or events which they would like to draw attention to please add them by way of comments on this post. We are particularly interested in forthcoming events. Continue reading
In this feature we revisit some older posts which are still of current interest. In the second part of this three part series, first posted in March 2010, Hugh Tomlinson QC looks at the development of the “right to reputation” in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. Part One of the post is here
Introduction
In contrast to many other international human rights instruments the Convention provides no express “right to reputation.” Article 8 was modeled on Article 12 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights which provides “No one shall be subject to … attacks upon his honour and reputation”. It had been decided to leave these words out of the Convention (see the Report on the Travaux Preparatoires) – it is not clear why this was done but it was not the subject of any substantial debate. Continue reading
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