The Government’s draft Defamation Bill has now been published following what began as the fevered demands of newspaper editorials and then morphed into seemingly endless debates between libel lawyers on either side of the barbed-wire fence. Whose interests should it serve? This debate struggled to maintain its momentum in 2011. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Month: March 2011 (Page 4 of 6)
As mentioned in our earlier post, the Government has today launched its Consultation on a new draft “Defamation Bill”, following on Lord Lester’s 2010 private member’s version. The new bill contains few surprises, adding little to its “private predecessor” and removing two controversial clauses, relating to ISPs and corporations. It deals with eight main areas: “substantial harm”, the defences of public interest, truth, honest comment and privilege, “single publication”, libel tourism and trial by jury. Continue reading
The Government’s draft Defamation Bill will be published today by the Ministry of Justice. This is in accordance with the Ministry of Justice’s Business Plan published on 8 November 2011. The timetable laid down had the “development” stage for draft Defamation Bill, ending in March 2011 with a consultation period on the draft bill ending in June 2011 and then a period of “amendment” in the light of the consultation response of 9 months, ending in April 2012 – with the bill being introduced in Parliament in May 2012. Continue reading
The DPP, Keir Starmer QC, has taken the highly unusual step of writing to the Guardian to clarify a point made by Assistant Commissioner John Yates in his own letter to the paper published on Saturday. This letter was set out in full in our post of yesterday. In it, Mr Yates had sought to refute the contention that his reliance on a “narrow interpretation” of the offence of interception before the Home Affairs Select Committee in 2010 was misleading. He argued that the DPP had given “unequivocal” advice to the same effect. 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 Government’s Defamation Bill is expected to be published this week. The Libel Reform campaign has issued a pamphlet entitled “”What should a defamation bill contain?” setting out its views on the contents of any bill. There are comments about the discussion document by campaign supporters Simon Singh and David Allen Green. Continue reading
There have been numerous developments in the telephone hacking saga which now appear to extend beyond the activities of Glenn Mulcaire. Most of the coverage has, once again, come from the Guardian and Independent.
Shadow Justice Minister Chris Bryant spoke in Parliament on Thursday 10th March 2011 in an adjournment debate about telephone hacking. His speech was televised, and an official transcript is now available. Continue reading
In a now-infamous wardrobe malfunction in the course of the half-time entertainment for Super Bowl XXXVIII (2004), during a duet between Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake, Timberlake fleetingly exposed Jackson’s right breast, which was adorned with a large nipple shield (the pair are pictured left immediately after the incident). In an exciting game, the New England Patriots beat the Carolina Panthers 32-29, but Jackson got all of the post-game media exposure (sorry!). 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
Association Nouvelle Des Boulogne Boys v France (App No. 6468/09)(in French only). ECtHR – 8 Mar 2011 Admissibility decision – “offensive banner” case: dissolution of football supporters’ club justified. Complaints with respect to ECHR, arts 6, 11 were manifestly unfounded. Continue reading
On 9 March 2011, in the case of MNB v News Group Newspapers ([2011] EWHC 528 (QB)) Mrs Justice Sharp granted a privacy injunction to restrain the publication of a range of information which tended to identify the claimant and which related to the subject matter of the action. This information had been published by the “Sun” newspaper despite the fact that an injunction had been granted in DFT terms at an earlier hearing.
Continue reading
A man been found guilty of public order offences for burning poppies and chanting “British soldiers burn in hell” on Remembrance Day. He was fined £50.
The ruling, and in particular the fine, has led to public anger. The Sun called the fine “pathetic” and asked whether Britain is now “deep in a quicksand of political correctness and hand-wringing over human rights“. The Prime Minister has said that we should be “making a stronger statement that that sort of behaviour is completely out of order and has no place in a tolerant society“ Continue reading
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