There is overwhelming public support for independent regulation of the press backed by law, a new opinion poll shows. Seventy-eight per cent of those asked – in an unusually large sample of people – said they preferred this kind of body to any regulator established by newspapers themselves. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Month: October 2012 (Page 3 of 5)
Kenneth Clarke, the Cabinet minister without portfolio, has written to the Leveson Inquiry to say that the press needs a new, more powerful regulator that is independent of both the industry and politicians. Written last July and now available on the inquiry’s website, Clarke’s letter also said that if the new regulator required backing or underpinning by statute ‘it would not be the freedom of expression Armageddon some commentators would have you believe’. Continue reading
R (on the application of the Metropolitan Police Service) v the Chairman of the Inquiry into the Death of Azelle Rodney and Interested Parties ([2012] EWHA 2783 (Admin)). The public inquiry into the death of Azelle Rodney, which commenced in 2010, was still under way when it was interrupted by the present dispute. It concerned the issue whether police surveillance footage taken from the air, showing Azelle Rodney’s movements in the two hours before his death, should be disclosed to the legal team representing his mother at the Inquiry. Continue reading
Journalisted is an independent, not-for-profit website built to make it easier for the public, to find out more about journalists and what they write about. It is run by the Media Standards Trust. It collects information automatically from the websites of British news outlets. Articles are indexed by journalist, based on the byline to the article. Keywords and statistics are automatically generated, and the site searches for any blogs or social bookmarking sites linking to each article. Continue reading
The FA proudly announced its player code of conduct last week. It was widely welcomed by the media particularly in the wake of the John Terry disciplinary panel decision and Ashley Cole’s angry reaction on Twitter to the panel’s view of his evidence. Footballers have been left in no doubt that they will have to answer to the FA for their misdeeds, and a good thing too, you may say. As many a journo commented, it is a surprise that it has taken until now for a code of conduct to be introduced for footballers, given the equivalents in sports such a rugby and cricket. Continue reading
We lead with criminal, rather than civil, law developments relating to media and communications. There have been a spate of prosecutions relating to social media use: a teenager from Lancashire was imprisoned for sick and grossly offensive jokes on his Facebook page about the missing 5 year old April Jones and Madeline McCann; in the same week, Azhar Ahmed was sentenced to 240 hours of community service for posting an offensive update to his Facebook page about British soldiers in Afghanistan, following the death of six British soldiers. Continue reading
It now appears that the late Sir Jimmy Savile was a rapist and sex abuser who may have had hundreds of victims over a period of nearly 50 years. He not only worked with children on television but was, apparently, given uncontrolled access to vulnerable patients in several hospitals. Continue reading
Hacked Off founder Brian Cathcart’s new book is now available to download. The Penguin Special details the chronology of press abuse and attempted reform in the UK, right up to the events that led to the Leveson inquiry, and includes an introduction from Hacked Off Director and victim of multiple press abuses, Hugh Grant. Read the following extract from Chapter 1 now. Continue reading
I have written before on this blog about prior restraints and temporary and permanent injunctions in defamation cases. Not long after the South African Constitutional Court effectively outlawed prior restraint in that jurisdiction (see Print Media South Africa v Minister of Home Affairs [2012] ZACC 22 (28 September 2012); blogged here), I learn that on Wednesday 10 October 2012 Gilligan J in the High Court in Ireland granted temporary injunctions to prevent the sale of a memoir written by the South African partner of a deceased celebrity Irish DJ (cover right): Continue reading
The Daily Mail wants you to ask yourself why Lord Justice Leveson is not reopening his media ethics and standards inquiry to deal with the BBC’s role in the Jimmy Savile scandal.
By all means ask yourself that, but please don’t dwell on it, because the answer is simple. Lord Justice Leveson’s terms of reference, written for him by the government, state clearly in the very first sentence that he should inquire into ‘the culture, practices and ethics of the press’. Continue reading
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