Law & Media Tweets and Tweeters – 90 people to follow – Judith Townend

Despite the law’s seemingly antagonistic relationship with Twitter over injunction breaches and contemptuous comments, the microblogging service has provided a vibrant place for live court reports and legal debate.

The increasing number of legal firms and lawyers on Twitter use it in very different ways; some pepper their tweets with personal observation, others keep it strictly professional or corporate.

Media law related tweets can be found by searching tags such as “medialaw”, “defamation“, “libel”, “Leveson” and “libelreform”. Twitter user profile searches around these key words are also useful: media law; privacy law; libel law, copyright.

It still requires some human sifting to identify the lawyers and legal professionals worth following. We have put together a list of 90 useful media law tweeters – not necessarily all lawyers.

The list below – expanded from this Inforrm post last year – is mainly UK-based, is not intended to be comprehensive and alphabetical by first name.

Please add your own suggestions for additional tweeters to follow in the comments below or tweet @jtownend.

1. Adam Wagner (@adamwagner1) – 1 Crown Office Row barrister and editor of the Human Rights blog – his tweets often stray into media law territory and the blog is fond of putting bad journalism culprits on the “naughty step”.

2. Afua Hirsch (@afuahirsch) – Guardian’s legal affairs correspondent.

3. Andrew Murray (@andrewdmurray) – Professor of law at the LSE and blogger at MediaPaL.

4. Andrew Sharpe (@TMT_lawyer) – “Caffeine-fuelled telecoms partner in law firm Charles Russell LLP”. He is also author of the CRITique commercial law blog.

5. Article 19 (@article19org) – Tweets from the leading freedom of expression NGO, with daily updates on international issues.

6. Brian Cathcart (@briancathcart) – Professor of Journalism at Kingston University and phone hacking campaigner.

7. Carl Gardner (@carlgardner) – His tweets are not just about media law, but he often writes about interim injunctions and the finer detail on his blog, Head of Legal.

8. Charon QC (@charonQC) – An infamous and irreverent rioja quaffing legal blogger.

9. Chris Atkins (@scatatkins) – Starsuckers director and Leveson witness. He tweets one of the best Leveson live-commentaries in town.

10. Citizen Media Law Project (@citmedialaw) – a US operation based at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, providing legal assistance and resources for online and citizen media.

11. Cyber Panda (@Cyber_Panda_ ) – Barrister and doctoral candidate at the University of Oxford. Blogs about and researches IT, IP, Privacy, Internet law issues. Also tweets from 12. @OxPILS with colleague David Erdos.

13. Daithí Mac Síthigh (@macsithigh) – Lecturer, UEA Law School, University of East Anglia. Academic witness to the Leveson Inquiry.

14. Daniel J Solove (@DanielSolove) – Law professor at George Washington University Law School and expert in information privacy law. Also a regular blogger on Concurring Opinions.

15. Damian Tambini (@damiantambini) – LSE lecturer and media regulation specialist.

16. David Allen Green (@davidallengreen) – Legal correspondent of New Statesman and head of media law at Preiskel.

17. David Banks (@dbanksy) – UK based media law consultant and co-author of McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists (20th edition).

18. David Mascord (@davidmascord) – Media law trainer and consultant.

19. Dissent Doe (@PogoWasRight) – Blogger on privacy, data protection and data breaches on pogowasright.org, databreaches.net, and phiprivacy.net. Regular tweets on privacy issues.

20. Early Resolution (@EarlyResolution) New libel resolution scheme set up by former Times’ lawyer, Alastair Brett and former High Court judge Sir Charles Gray.

21. English PEN (@englishPEN) Tweets from London-based freedom of speech organisation.

22. Emily Goodhand (@copyrightgirl) – Her tweets cover all things copyright, with a higher education focus.

23. Eric Goldman (@ericgoldman) – internet law, advertising law & IP professor, Santa Clara University School of Law; he also blogs on the Technology and Marketing Law blog.

24. Evan Harris (@drevanharris) Former MP currently campaigning for libel reform and free speech.

25. Five Chinese Crackers (@5ChinCrack) – Tracking newspaper mischief since 2006.

26. FoIMan (@FoIman) – On Freedom of Information. His blog is an excellent resource.

27. Gavin Freeguard (@gavinfreeguard) – Orwell Prize deputy director; senior editor at the Media Standards Trust.

28. Gavin Ward (@gavward) – Scotland-based former lawyer, law tutor and SEO & social media manager.

29. George Brock (@georgeprof) – Professor and head of journalism at City University London, with an interest in media regulation and privacy law.

30. Heather Brooke (@newsbrooke) – Regular and entertaining tweets on media and political issues from the well known journalist and freedom of information campaigner.

31. Human Rights Law (@HumanRightsLaw) – A librarian tweeting updates on human rights law and social justice.

32. Index on Censorship (@IndexCensorship) – The free speech organisation’s main account. Also tweeting Leveson Inquiry from 33. @indexleveson.

34. John Kampfner (@johnkampfner) – Index on Censorship CEO.

35. Jonathan Bailey (@plagiarismtoday) – Tweets about copyright infringement, content theft and plagiarism.

36. Jonathan Heawood (@jheawood) – English PEN director.

37. Jon Baines (@bainsey1969) – Data protection, freedom of information and privacy related tweets.

38. Jon Slattery (@jonslattery) – Media blogger with extensive experience of covering the industry, with frequent stories on law and ethics.

39. Joshua Rozenberg (joshuarozenberg) – Long-time national legal correspondent; often pops up on TV and radio. Chairs the Halsbury Law Exchange.

40. Julian Petley (@julianpetley) – Professor of Screen Media and Journalism at Brunel University; recently gave evidence to Leveson Inquiry.

41. Kate Sutherland (@Lawandlit) – She describes herself as “Law professor and fiction writer. Currently obsessed with defamation law, free speech, privacy, and social media”. Regular media law related tweets.

42. Keith Mathieson (@RPCPrivacyLaw) – Accompaniment to RPC’s excellent privacy blog.

43. Kevin Arscott (@uponnothing) – On bad journalism; blogs at Angry Mob.

44. Law Think UK (@lawthinkUK) – Tweets from a UK Human rights blog.

45. Leveson Inquiry (@levesoninquiry) – The UK’s first all-tweeted and live-streamed Public Inquiry.

46. Lilian Edwards (@lilianedwards) – Professor of E-Governance at Strathclyde University. Blogs at panGloss.

47. Love and Garbage (@loveandgarbage) – Entertaining, if slightly eclectic, legal blogger. Good on privacy and injunctions.

48. LSE Media Policy (@lsemediapolicy) – Media regulation, law and ethics themed content from a collaborative academic blog.

49. Kyu Ho Youm (@marshallyoum) – The Jonathan Marshall First Amendment Chair and an active and regular media law tweeter – drawing attention to many of the latest stories from around the world.

50. Marta Cooper (@martaruco) – Currently tweeting from the Leveson Inquiry for Index on Censorship.

51. Mark Stephens (@markslarks) – Well-known tweeting lawyer, with a media law/freedom of expression theme.

52. Martin Moore (@martinjemoore) – Tweets from the director of the Media Standards Trust (53. @newsmatters) – consistently well-informed on media issues

54. Maya Wolfe-Robinson (@mwolferobinson) Guardian Law commissioning editor; media law bits amid other legal tweeting.

55. Media Feed (@media_feed) Tracking blogs in the ‘bad journalism’ genre.

56. Media Legal Defence Initiative (@mldi) Organisation offering legal support to journalists and media outlets.

57. Meeja Law (@meejalaw / @jtownend) – Judith Townend’s tweets on UK media and legal issues. She also has a blog of the same name. Automated news updates from various media law publications can be found at @medialawuk.

58. Mike Jempson (@mediawiseMJ) – Director, journalism ethics charity MediaWise; journalist, international trainer, university lecturer.

59. Milly Moo (@_millymoo) Writes the Beneath the Wig blog – Includes media law bits and pieces from time to time.

60. Natalie Peck (@nataliepeck) – Privacy law researcher; currently tweeting lots of Leveson material.

61. Out-Law News (@outlawnews) – An invaluable internet law service from the Pinsent Masons team, edited by Matthew Maggee (62. @outlaweditor).

63. Padraig Reidy (@mepadraigreidy) – Index on Censorship news editor.

64. Paul Bernal (@paulbernalUK) – Lecturer in IT, IP and media law at UEA; interested in privacy, autonomy and human rights.

65. Paul Tweed (@paul_tweed) – Media lawyer specialising in defamation, privacy, piracy and IP issues.

66. Press Complaints Commission (@ukpcc) The Press Complaints Commission’s official news and commentary feed.

67. Privacy Law (@privacylaw) – from Professor Michael Scott (68. @lawprof), Southwestern Law School, L.A and dealing with, er, Privacy Law.

69. Richard Moorhead (@richardmoorhead) – dedicated blogger at LawyerWatch with an interest in legal industry ethics and regulation.

70. Richard Peppiatt (@richpeppiatt) – Ex-tabloid hack; Leveson witness.

71. Richard Susskind (@richardsusskind) – Technologist and president of the Society for Computers and Law. He talks about the law and Twitter in the new introduction to the latest edition of his book, ‘The End of Lawyers?’.

72. Ros Taylor (@rosamundmtaylor) – Editor of the Guardian’s Law (73. @gdnlaw) site.

74. Sheldon Toplitt (theunrulyoflaw) – US media law and press news from the Unruly of Law blog.

75. Siobhain Butterworth (@siobhainb) – Former Guardian readers’ editor; blogs for Guardian Law with colleague Owen Bowcott, at 76. @owenbowcott.

77. Simon Singh (@slsingh) – Former libel defendant still fighting for libel reform.

78. Steve Kuncewicz (@stevekuncewicz) – Manchester based lawyer with interest in IP and social media.

79. Struan Robertson (@struan99) – Technology lawyer and former editor of Out-Law news.

80. Suffolk Media Law (@suffolkmedialaw) A feed dedicated to media law news.

81. Tabloid Watch (@TabloidWatch) – Another bad journalism style site and useful monitor of red-top corrections.

82. Thais Portilho-Shrimpton (@selkie) the Hacked Off campaign co-ordinator, also tweeting at 83. @hackinginquiry.

84. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (@tbij) Tweets from the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

85. The Media Blog (@themediatweets) media law and ethics gems among general media monitoring and irreverence.

86. Tim Bratton (@legalbrat), general counsel at the FT.

87. Tim Pitt-Payne QC (@tpittpayne) Barrister at 11KBW in London, specialising in public law, employment law and information law.

88. Times Law (@timeslaw) Links to the stuff behind the paywall. They also have 89. @timescrime, run by Sean O’Neill.

90. 1stamendment (@1stamendment) – The First Amendment Coalition provides very regular updates on First Amendment issues. There is also a website.

And last, but not least, this blog is on Twitter here: @inforrm (91).

We’ll keep adding to this already growing Twitter list, so please tweet or send your suggestions in!

This list was compiled for Inforrm by @jtownend, aka Judith Townend, a freelance journalist and PhD researcher examining legal restraints on the media.