Lord Justice Leveson commissioned a series of teaching or briefing sessions to provide the Inquiry with key factual background by way of expert presentations with an opportunity for members of the Inquiry to ask questions. The details of these sessions have now been announced on the Inquiry website. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Month: September 2011 (Page 2 of 6)
On 14 September 2011 the Editor of the Financial Times, Lionel Barber, gave the Fulbright Lecture with the title “Adapt or Die: The Future of News and Newspapers in the Digital Revolution“. After considering the impact of the phone hacking scandal, he said that Press Complaints Commission in its current form is dead and should be replaced by an entirely new system of self-regulation. Continue reading
The Metropolitan Police did not distinguish itself at the time of the original phone hacking investigation and, despite the plaudits for Operation Weeting, the Met is still not always sure-footed in its approach. On Friday 16 September 2011 it was disclosed that the police had moved into action against another newspaper.
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Ofcom operates a “fit and proper person” test for broadcast licence-holders. This test has received much attention recently in the context of allegations of phone-hacking at the News of the World, and the potential impact upon BSkyB’s broadcast licence. The News of the World was owned by News Corporation, and News Corporation owns 39% of BSkyB. Continue reading
Sir Harry Evans deserves credit for organising this week’s debate about ‘the press we deserve’ in central London. It was deeply depressing, however, to see a panel of the great and the good discussing the press they thought they deserved, with hardly a reference to the reading public and with no apparent awareness of the depth of failings in the (absent) tabloid press. Continue reading
The Hacked Off campaign was set up in July to campaign for a public inquiry into phone hacking and other media misconduct. Following the establishment of the Leveson Inquiry it has now published a new campaign manifesto, dealing with its campaign aims and objectives going forward. This was first published on the Hacked Off website on 19 September 2011. Continue reading
In a post on this blog on Friday 16 September 2011, the Chair of Lawyers for Media Standards, Steven Heffer, described the News International phone hacking compensation scheme as “smoke and mirrors”. He noted that, despite the scheme having been announced in April 2011, no details have yet been made public. Continue reading
Johnny Adair
On Friday 16 September 2011, the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland (Morgan LCJ, Higgins LJ and Sir John Sheil) handed down judgment in the privacy claim of McGaughey v Sunday Newspapers Ltd. The narrow issue on the appeal was whether or not the action should be remitted to the County Court. McCloskey J had made an order remitting the case and the Court of Appeal upheld his decision ([2010] NICh 7). But the case is of more general interest because the order was made on the basis of an assessment of the highest award of likely damages for misuse of private information. Continue reading
When considering the Metropolitan Police’s attempt to force a Guardian journalist to disclose her source, it is worth revisiting the seminal case of R v Shayler [2002] UKHL 11. The case, which arose shortly after the Human Rights Act came into force, shows how heavily stacked the law is against those accused of causing to leak state secrets, but may also reveal some limited hope for journalists too. Continue reading
The most striking phone hacking story of the week concerns the application by the Metropolitan Police for orders under PACE requiring the “Guardian” to disclose its sources for various phone hacking stories. This was reported in the “Guardian” on Friday and has attracted understandable and widespread concern – from the “Daily Telegraph” to Hugh Grant at the Lib Dem conference. However, the “Independent” reports that the Met is “ready to fight” on this issue. Continue reading
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