In English law there is an absolute bar to claims by public bodies in defamation. It is the purpose of this three part post is to explore whether this bar is justified in principle or by the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Month: May 2011 (Page 3 of 5)
The decision of Mr Justice Eady CTB v News Group Newspapers and Imogen Thomas [2011] EWHC 1232 (QB) has been widely discussed in the media (and was the subject of a case comment on this blog). The press has concentrated on Ms Thomas’ “anger” at the decison but there is another aspect of the case of more general interest. Continue reading
In the increasingly heated debate about the state of English privacy law, the courts have frequently been accused of seeking to introduce a privacy law “by the backdoor”. Today’s decision in CTB v News Group Newspapers Ltd [2011] EWHC 1232 (QB) contains a robust judicial response to that criticism. In his judgment, Eady J – the judge who has so far borne the brunt of the media’s ire – tackles head on the suggestion that the judges are overriding the democratic process by unilaterally creating a new privacy law. 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 two main media legal stories of 2011 – privacy and phone hacking – have continued to dominate this week. The former has received the greatest coverage as a Continue reading
Max Mosley has lost the latest battle in his ongoing war with the press on privacy. He had argued before the European Court of Human Rights (‘European Court’) that where a newspaper published private information on an individual they should be forced to notify the individual concerned prior to publication. The court rejected such a ‘pre-notification requirement’. This should, however, not be seen as a victory for the press or free speech. Rather, it is more of an unsurprising application of the principles of the European Court. Continue reading
The PCC’s adjudication against the Telegraph creates an important precedent where there are currently far too few. But on its own it is unlikely to have a major impact, either in the short or long term, on press practice. Continue reading
Last week’s decision of Sharp J in MJN v News Group Newspapers Limited [2011] EWHC 1192 shares some similarities with cases that have caused so much uproar recently, in that it concerns an injunction prohibiting identification of a married premiership footballer who has been having an affair. However, there are two important points to note: firstly, the Order allows the person with whom he was having an affair to ‘tell her story about her relationship’ (subject not naming him and including sexual and salacious details of their affair) and secondly, despite the subject matter of the hearing being private and confidential information, the hearing was conducted in public. Continue reading
Those in Mr Justice Vos’ ever lively Court 57 witnessed another bombshell today. The News of the World has capitulated entirely in the face of Sienna Miller’s claim. It was this claim that heralded the brave new world of phone-hacking litigation and sparked the arrest of Ian Edmondson by the army of policeman deployed in operation Weeting. It is not surprising that the News of the World should choose to settle this paradigm case, but the extent of their open admissions is truly astonishing. Continue reading
There has been such an outpouring of comment and opinion on the Mosley judgment (see my post) that I thought it would be a useful exercise to provide some sort of guide through the maze of material which is out there. Continue reading
When a court is confronted with a conflict between two human rights, their indivisibility demands that both rights are accorded a priori equal weight in the considerations of the judges. Yet, research into the conflict between freedom of expression and the right to reputation in the recent defamation case law of the European Court of Human Rights indicates that the Court engages in preferential framing when attempting to resolve the conflict. Continue reading
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