On 26 January 2011 the Metropolitan Police announced a new investigation into phone hacking – Operation Weeting. This is under the “Specialist Crime Directorate” and is headed by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers. Over the last two weeks she has been meeting victims and their lawyers and making it clear that a number of previous statements about “no evidence” were incorrect. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Month: February 2011 (Page 2 of 6)
Should internet publications be subject to pre-suit resolution? What about a US-style Federal Appeals Court to review all freedom of speech of decisions? New South Wales District Court Judge Judith Gibson argues the case for reform in a paper she delivered on 29 November 2010 to the Intellectual Property, Media and Communications Law Roundtable held at UTS. The paper originally published by the Gazette of Law and Journalism Part 2 of the paper will be published later in the week.
Introduction
2010 has been a significant year for discussion of defamation law reform in common law countries and in the European Union. In England, discussion has been dominated by the House of Commons report [1] and Lord Lester’s law reform bill [2]. Continue reading
News
The leading media and law story of the week is, again, phone hacking. Three applications were heard this week – each producing new information. First, there was the application by Steve Coogan and Andy Gray – heard over 3 days by Mr Justice Vos in the Chancery Division. Continue reading
In less than a decade privacy has moved from the outer limits of media law to its centre. The privacy injunction has replaced the “gagging writ” as the media bogeyman threatening investigative journalism and proper reporting. While the number of defamation actions continues to decline, privacy (and “phone hacking”) cases are on everyone’s lips. The new Law Society Privacy Law Handbook is the first book devoted exclusively to this area. This is perhaps surprising. Other authors may have been held back by the furious pace of development of the law – in my own case this has certainly been the excuse given to my publishers. Continue reading
Last week we had a post on media blogs which produced a lot of interest and comment. Our attention was drawn to a number of other blogs which had not made our list and to a number of twitter feeds largely devoted to media issues. This post is intended to fill the gaps in the last one and to add the twitter feeds to our lists. Continue reading
The ongoing police investigation into phone-hacking in Britain by the tabloid News of the World has revealed the widespread use of surveillance techniques by private actors, with predictable outrage expressed at the violations of privacy. Yet the recent inquiries only began in earnest after a major story in the New York Times.
This is the paradox of today’s media: investigative journalism is often key to revealing abuses of surveillance powers, yet the commercial reality of today’s market drives unscrupulous journalists themselves towards ever more dubious methods. Continue reading
This is a Media Law Update covering the last week prepared by the Legal Information Team at Matrix Chambers, which they have kindly agreed to make available to readers of Inforrm.
Latest Cases
Hirschfeld v McGrath [2011] EWHC 249 (QB) – 15 Feb 2011. The Court considered whether an anonymity order should be continued – permitting the court to say more about the case in a public judgment – or whether some other order governing the reporting of the proceedings should be made. The defendant had threatened to include certain private information concerning the claimant in an autobiography. Continue reading
Jockeys and libel lawyers might be thought to be unusual bedfellows. However in McKeown v Attheraces Ltd [2011] EWHC 179 (QB) racing met the law in an interim application that raised potentially important questions about the operation of the principle of res judicata in defamation claims. Continue reading
In this piece, which originally appeared in the Gazette of Law and Journalism in November 2010, media law academic Dr David Rolph* looks at the impact of new forms of communications on defamation law. Where does the defence of innocent dissemination come in? And are internet service providers, website hosts and search engines really publishers?
Internet technologies have clearly revolutionised the way in which we communicate. Their impact on the law applicable to those communications has been less dramatic. Continue reading
We will begin with the blogs which dissect the popular press. Our first stop is usually the Tabloid Watch blog – now two years old and still going strong. Continue reading
Recent Judgments
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