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Month: October 2011 (Page 2 of 6)

Case Law: Commissioner of Police v Times Newspapers, Times can use leaked Police documents in libel defence – Rachit Buch

October 26, 2011 / / 1 Comment

Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis & Anor v Times Newspapers Ltd & Anor [2011] EWHC 2705 (QB) 

Mr Justice Tugendhat has held that, with restrictions, The Times Newspapers Ltd (TNL) should be allowed to use information from leaked documents in its defence to a libel claim brought by the Metropolitan Police Service and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). However, proportionality limited the reach of this judgment to the next stage in the libel claim, after which reassessment may be necessary. Continue reading

Case Law: Crookes v Newton: never say ‘never’ – Gervase de Wilde

October 26, 2011 / / 2 Comments

The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Crookes v Newton 2011 SCC 47, written up here for Inforrm by Paul Schabas and Jon Goheen, has been hailed as a victory for free speech online. The judgment offers the first definitive answer in the common law world to the question of whether linking to defamatory material online attracts liability for the publication of that material. That answer is a resounding and seemingly definitive ‘no’. Continue reading

Case Law: Kordowski v Hudson – Slander claim brought by the owner of the ‘Solicitors from Hell’ website is struck out Sara Mansoori

October 25, 2011 / / 1 Comment

Rick Kordowski, who owns the ‘Solicitors from Hell’ website, attempted last week to persuade Tugendhat J that he should be granted summary judgment on his slander claim against Des Hudson, the Chief Executive of the Law Society.  This failed and instead the Court granted Mr Hudson’s cross application and struck the slander claim out as an abuse of process ([2011] EWHC 2667 (QB)). Continue reading

Law and Media Round Up – 24 October 2011

October 24, 2011 / / 1 Comment

The Leveson Inquiry was not the only media law show in town this week, with the publication of the Joint Committee on the Draft Defamation Bill’s first report.  It accepts most of the government’s draft bill’s contents, but proposes a test of “serious and substantial harm” in clause 1 and some amendments to clause 2 (responsible publication) and to other clauses. It recommends that qualified privilege should be extended to fair and accurate reports of academic and scientific conferences and peer reviewed articles. Continue reading

News: Joint Committee on Privacy and Injunctions: First Evidence Session – Straw, Wakeham, Sedley and Phillipson

October 23, 2011 / / 1 Comment

The twenty six member Joint Committee on Privacy and Injunctions held an evidence session on 17 October 2011.   The witnesses were Jack Straw MP, Lord Wakeham, Sir Stephen Sedley, and Professor Gavin Phillipson.  The uncorrected transcript of their evidence is now available and the Session can also be seen on Parliament TV.  A number of interesting points emerged in the course of the session. Continue reading

Supreme Court of Canada Protects Hyperlinkers – Paul Schabas and Jon Goheen

October 22, 2011 / / 4 Comments

Should defamatory material accessible by hyperlink from a blog be taken to have been incorporated as part of the blog?  That question was raised last year in Ali v. Associated Newspapers Inc., [2010] EWHC 100 (QB).  In that case, Mr. Justice Eady suggested in obiter that it was unlikely that a general rule of thumb would be adopted, and that the question would depend on the circumstances of the particular case. Continue reading

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