Leonard McNae, 1902-1996, wrote the first Essential Law for Journalists for the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ), which was published as a book in 1954, replacing the NUJ’s The Pressman and the Law by G.F.L. Bridgman of the Middle Temple.
Among the lawyers, academics and journalists attending the launch on Friday were Dodd and Hanna’s predecessors, Tom Welsh and Walter Greenwood.
As he told Lord Justice Leveson at the Inquiry in January,
“I rely on “The Essential Law for Journalists” to point out all the statutory provisions that apply and restrict freedom of the press. I’m not just talking about defamation or the Data Protection Act or the Freedom of Information Act. The list is endless. It’s a massive textbook.”
McNae’s has become “an institution in its own right“, Lord Hunt said on Friday.
Judith Townend is a freelance journalist and PhD researcher examining legal restraints on the media, who runs the Meeja Law blog. She is @jtownend on Twitter.
Images courtesy of the NCTJ.