We reported last month that on 14 February 2011, controversial Federal Judge Judge Manuel Real dismissed the libel action brought by David Beckham against Bauer Publishhing Company Limited as the publishers of “In Touch” magazine. The order made by the judge is here. The claim arose out of the publication of an article entitled “David’s Dangerous Betrayal” which consisted of an interview with Irma Nici, described as a former high-class call girl, claiming that she had slept with David Beckham, who had agreed to pay her US$10,000 for “one night of passion”. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Month: March 2011 (Page 3 of 6)
The UK’s Ministry of Justice has announced its long-awaited consultation on the reform of the UK’s libel laws. Much of the territory covered by draft Defamation Bill was covered in Ireland by the Defamation Act, 2009 (also here), though there are some important differences as well. Continue reading
On 16 March 2011, Lord Neuberger, the Master of the Rolls, gave the Judicial Studies Board Annual Lecture entitled “Open Justice Unbound?”. The full speech is available on the judiciary website here. Although he covers a number of areas in this talk, I want to look at what he has to say on the issue of superinjunctions which has so vexed the media and on occasion politicians. Continue reading
In November 2010 we reported on the Reframing Libel” event at City University London. This brought together academics, practitioners, and campaigners to discuss the future of libel reform. We subsequently published posts based on the contributions by Razi Mireskandari (one of our most popular posts), Dominic Crossley and Hugh Tomlinson (Part 1 and Part 2).
Writing on her “Meeja law” blog journalist and researcher Judith Townend (who was involved in the organisation of the event) reports that, to coincide with the government’s publication of the Draft Defamation Bill, the Centre for Law, Justice and Journalism at City University London has made digital papers available here. Continue reading
This is second part of Alastair Mullis’ study of the Draft Defamation Bill. Part 1 was posted on 18 March 2011. In this post he considers the provisions of Clauses 3 to 9 of the Bill.
Clause 3 – Truth
Clause 3 replaces the existing common law defence of justification with a new statutory defence of truth. Subsection (1) restates the existing law in providing that ‘It is a defence … for the defendant to show that the imputation conveyed by the statement complained of is substantially true.’ Continue reading
The Government’s Defamation Bill was published on Tuesday 15th March 2011 and on the same day the Deputy Prime Minister took the opportunity, by way of media introduction of the new Bill, to issue a rallying call to freedom of speech: ‘In a modern, liberal and open society dissent should be celebrated, and debate should be raucous. The press should be free – and in our society, they will be’. Stirring words indeed. In the light of this language, it would not have been surprising if the Bill had offered a radical re-shifting of the law in favour of freedom of expression. That it does not do so is welcome. Continue reading
When the Guardian’s director of editorial legal services, Gillian Phillips (pictured right), spoke at an industry conference 12 months ago, there were no written judgments on privacy injunctions apart from Terry. Since then the field has developed significantly, giving Phillips plenty to draw on, for a talk about the rise of the “super injunction”, at this year’s IBC Legal Defamation & Privacy event. Continue reading
This is a Media and Information 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
Mondragon v Spain (App No. 2034/07). ECtHR – 15 Mar 2011 (the judgment is available only in French). The applicant was the representative of a left wing Basque political party who called the King of Spain “he who protects torture and imposes his monarchical regime on our people through torture and violence”. Continue reading
Last week saw the first British libel settlement arising out of allegations published on Twitter. In Wales a Caerphilly Councillor, Colin Elsbury, agreed to pay £3,000 damages, substantial costs and to publish an apology on Twitter for his tweet about a political rival, Eddie Talbot. Continue reading
It was inevitable that an unpopular Government whose competence is a matter of serious public debate would try and gain some publicity advantage from a Defamation Bill. After all, for entirely unsurprising reasons, this is very popular in the media. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg sought to capitalise on this in an article published on the “Guardian” website. The title tells us that the coalition “will end the libel farce” and that the bill “will let the press be free“. Almost everything said by Mr Clegg in this article is wrong or misleading. Continue reading
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