The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights gave judgment on 14 September 2010 in the case of Sanoma Uitgevers BV v Netherlands in relation to the disclosure of confidential journalistic sources. It held, unanimously that the requirement that the applicant provide material to the public prosecutor was not “prescribed by law” and was, therefore, a violation of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Month: September 2010 (Page 3 of 4)
It has been announced by the Judicial Communications Office that Mr Justice Tugendhat will be the Judge in Charge of the Jury List – effectively the senior media judge in England and Wales – from 1 October 2010. He will also be the Judge in Charge of the Non-Jury List. Mr Justice Tugendhat replaces Mr Justice Eady who has held the jury list post since 2000. No fixed term for the appointment has been announced. It means that Mr Justice Tugendhat will sit full time in London largely dealing with media cases. Continue reading
By granting these privacy orders, courts are allowing men to treat women like chattels
There has been a lot of public discussion in the past few weeks about celebrities getting injunctions to protect their private lives. The commentaries suggest that these injunctions are being obtained predominantly by high-profile celebrities including a number of Premiership footballers to prevent publication of their (alleged) peccadilloes. Continue reading
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.
News
The “News of the World” voice mail hacking story continues to dominate the media and law news. Tom Watson MP raised the matter in Parliament on Monday 6 September 2010, Then, on Thursday 9 September 2010 it was debated as a matter of privilege – with the issue being referred to the Standards and Privileges Committee., Simon Hoggart suggested in the Guardian that MPs had got their chance to hit back at tabloid press that has been tormenting them for years. Continue reading
This is a Media Law Update covering the past month prepared by the Legal Information Team at Matrix Chambers, which they have kindly agreed to make available to readers of Inforrm.
Latest Regulatory Decisions
Latest decisions of the Scottish Information Commissioner
Latest Decision Notices from the Information Commissioner’s Office. Continue reading
Our first two items concern California. First, another interesting “free speech” case. In Anderson v. City of Hermosa Beach, the Court of Appeals of the 9th Circuit ruled that Hermosa Beach, California could not ban tattoo parlours because tattooing is a “purely expressive activity” protected by the First Amendment. Continue reading
The threat by “Pastor” Terry Jones of the “The Dove World Outreach Center” to “Burn a Koran” on 11 September raises interesting questions about the regulation of “hate speech” and conduct. Author of a book called “Islam is the Devil” (which has a Facebook page), Mr Jones has an interesting history and runs a religious group with about 50 members. He says he has a right to burn Islam’s holy book because it is “full of lies“, although acknowledging that he has “no experience… whatsoever” of the Koran, he argues that it is “evil” because it espouses something other than Biblical truth and incites radical, violent behaviour among Muslims. Continue reading
The recent decision of McCallum J in Ray Chesterton v Radio 2UE Sydney Pty Ltd [2010] NSWSC 982 highlights some interesting issues concerning the nature and extent of reply to attack privilege and provides an insight into libel litigation in New South Wales and the thickness of the skins of local journalists.
Sports journalist Ray Chesterton had brought libel proceedings against the radio station in respect of remarks made by radio journalist John Laws during the “John Laws Morning Show”. Continue reading
Following Sunday’s pair of “exclusives” – discussed in our post here – the tabloid press is engaging in a feeding frenzy of titillation and revelation concerning Wayne Rooney in particular and footballers in general. The Sun has signed up “hooker number two”, with an appropriate picture of the “tarty twosome who gave Wayne Rooney a threesome”. Continue reading
The argument that companies should not be able to sue for libel appears to be an attractive one. Libel reformers draw attention to the actions brought by large corporations against campaigners and NGOs, apparently designed to stifle proper public debate about matters of public interest. Several of the best known actions complained about by scientists and science writers have been brought by corporations against individual scientists or science writers who often face the risk of severe financial hardship in defending the actions. Continue reading
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