The issue of when something is “published” on the internet is at the centre of Mr Justice Fulford’s decision that two articles giving details of previous allegations against PC Simon Harwood were a breach of the strict liability rule. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Month: July 2012 (Page 2 of 5)
The Crown Prosecution Service announced today that it had decided to charge former News of the World editors Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks, and six others with offences relating to alleging phone hacking between 2002 and 2006. In addition to Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, the News of the World employees to be charged are Stuart Kuttner, Greg Miskiw, Ian Edmondson, Neville Thurlbeck and James Weatherup. Glenn Mulcaire will also face further charges. Continue reading
Articles on Levi Bellfield published in the Daily Mirror and the Daily Mail have been held to be in contempt of court. The articles in question formed part of an ‘avalanche of publicity’ by both print and broadcast media following Bellfield’s conviction on 23 June 2011 for the murder and kidnapping of Milly Dowler. Continue reading
The Leveson Inquiry continued to hear evidence in module four. This included evidence from Matt Sprake, of the News Pic agency, who told of carrying out surveillance on more than 300 people over two years, almost always involving covert photography. Roy Greenslade has a post on the “Astonishing story of a photographic agency’s surveillance exploits”. Max Mosley’s evidence that only the richest one per cent can take on the newspapers was widely reported. Continue reading
Over the past fortnight Lord Justice Leveson has heard evidence on the future of press regulation for module four of the inquiry. On the morning of Monday, July 9, Lord Justice Leveson opened module four by saying he had read all the evidence sent to him and would take every proposal into account before making recommendations later this year. He told the inquiry he had asked Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers to return for a third time to give an update on police investigations Operations Weeting, Elveden and Tuleta, and would ask for another briefing in the autumn. Continue reading
We have previously drawn attention to Gary Hayes’ “Counter” for Social Media use which shows the amount of social media activity taking place at any given moment. This can be found at the bottom of this post. It suggests that our blog post today was one of over 2 million posted worldwide in the past 24 hours – along with 175 million tweets and an astonishing 3.2 billion likes and comments on Facebook. Continue reading
Following Boris Johnson’s victory in the libel courts this week in successfully striking out the complaint brought by RMT leader Bob Crow, his Mayoral adversary Ken Livingstone has also found himself the subject of a libel complaint. Continue reading
Allegations of murder are usually tried in the criminal courts. The recent libel claim in Bento v The Chief Constable of Bedfordshire Police [2012] EWHC 1525 (QB) is a striking exception. The case had all the ingredients of a legal thriller – a mysterious death; a quashed murder conviction; a suspect determined to clear his name and a police force convinced of his guilt. It also gave rise to interesting questions of defamation law. Continue reading
When Richard Peppiatt resigned from the Daily Star in March 2011 he decried its racist and prurient agenda in a brilliantly written resignation letter to Richard Desmond who was reliably informed of the “cascade of shit pirouetting from [his] penthouse office, caking each layer of management, splattering all in between”.
One of the longer-awaited libel judgments of recent times was handed down on 6 July 2012, having been reserved for a period of over 5 months. Sharp J produced a comprehensive, 383 paragraph judgment comprehensively dismissing the claim by an Egyptian scientist against the scientific journal Nature (El Naschie v Macmillan Publishers Ltd (t/a Nature Publishing Group) & Anor [2012] EWHC 1809 (QB)). Continue reading
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