On Wednesday 19 October 2011 the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, gave a speech on “Press Regulation” at the “Justice” Annual Human Rights Law Conference. The speech was noteworthy for a number of reasons. Most importantly, it shows that the most senior judge in England and Wales is a supporter of the PCC and appears to favour “Reform Option 2” – PCC Plus (see our post of 29 September 2011). Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Month: October 2011 (Page 3 of 6)
We had a post last week about the well-known “Trafigura” case – the “super-injunction” which was granted on 11 September 2009 and whose existence was subsequently disclosed in the House of Commons by Paul Farrelly MP. Continue reading
The Joint Committee on the Draft Defamation Bill has issued its Report on the Bill. The Committee, chaired by Lord Mawhinney (pictured) welcomes most of the reforms contained in the draft Bill, but recommends a number of changes to the draft: a test of “serious and substantial harm” in clause 1 and some amendments to clause 2 (responsible publication) and to other clauses. It also recommends that qualified privileges should be extended to fair and accurate reports of academic and scientific conferences and peer reviewed articles. Continue reading
On 12 October 2011 Desmond Browne QC gave this presentation to the third Leveson Inquiry Seminar, “Supporting a free press and high standards – approaches to Regulation”.
My brief is to examine the question what redress should be available to a victim of a breach of standards. Obviously there are two routes: (1) through the courts, and (2) through a regulator. Continue reading
While the Leveson Inquiry continues to dominate headlines with impassioned and controversial speeches articulating the tabloid culture and values by Trevor Kavanagh, Paul Dacre and Kelvin Mackenzie, The Reuters Institute held a debate entitled “The News International Scandal and the Rights of Journalism” last Monday 11 October 2011 at the RSA in the Strand. Continue reading
As the legal term moves into full swing and many of our readers complain of “phone hacking exhaustion”, we begin with libel. It has been announced that the long awaited report of the Joint Committee on the Draft Defamation Bill will be published on Wednesday 19 October 2011 at 00:01am. Continue reading
On Monday and Tuesday 17 and 18 October 2011 the Supreme Court (Lords Phillips, Brown, Mance, Clarke and Dyson) will hear the appeal of the defendant, Times Newspapers, against the decision of the Court of Appeal ([2010] EWCA Civ 804) that the publication of an article on 2 June 2006 was not covered by Reynolds privilege. This is only the second time that the highest court has considered the application of the “responsible publication in the public interest”, first established by the House of Lords in Reynolds v Times Newspapers ([2001] 2 AC 127) nearly 12 years ago. The Court is not being invited to engage in a radical reconsideration of the limits of this defence but rather to consider questions of balance and the limits of editorial discretion. Continue reading
Talk about missing the story. The Sun, the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, The Guardian, even Newsnight all failed to lead with the genuinely newsworthy aspect of Wednesday’s Leveson Inquiry seminars.The Sun highlighted Paul Dacre and Kelvin MacKenzie’s attacks on David Cameron – for setting up the Inquiry in the first place. Continue reading
On 12 October 2011, the Leveson Inquiry held the third in its remarkable series of seminars which have brought together some of the leading figures in and around the media to discuss issues concerning the press and its regulation. There were some important contributions – in particular from “Daily Mail” editor Paul Dacre. Continue reading
A long-running saga came to an end at the High Court in London on 7 October 2011, in Adelson v Anderson [2011] EWHC 2497 (QB). Judgment was given by Tugendhat J on an application to strike out a libel claim which had its origins in 2004, and which was largely based on allegations similar to those already the subject of a Statement in Open Court by Associated Newspapers, in an action by the same Claimant in 2008. Continue reading
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