The Panopticon Blog has reported recently on the ICO’s new Code of Practice on Anonymisation. That Code offers guidance for ensuring data protection-compliant disclosure in difficult cases such as those involving apparently anonymous statistics, and situations where someone with inside knowledge (or a ‘motivated intruder’) could identify someone referred to anonymously in a disclosed document. The Upper Tribunal in Information Commissioner v Magherafelt District Council ([2012] UKUT 263 AAC) grappled with those issues earlier this year in the context of disclosing a summarised schedule of disciplinary action. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Month: December 2012 (Page 2 of 6)
Hacked Off, and the victims of press abuses for which it speaks, have three principled objections to the use of a Royal Charter instead of legislation in relation to the underpinning of a regulatory recognition body.
1. It is undemocratic. This is a shameless recourse to the royal prerogative when democratic, parliamentary means are available – and would be far more credible and appropriate given what is at stake. This is happening for no other reason than to accommodate editors and proprietors – the very editors and proprietors who stand convicted by a public inquiry both of “wreaking havoc in the lives of innocent people” and of concealing their wrongdoing behind the facade of a sham regulator. The political process is thus bowing down to the power of a press which has been found to operate far too often against the public interest.
Confusion and obfuscation are distorting the debate about the future of press regulation in the UK. At the heart of this distortion lie misunderstandings – and in some cases intentional misrepresentations – of what the Leveson Report actually recommends. As a result, advocates on both sides are arguing at cross-purposes, while the substance of the Leveson proposals is in danger of being drowned out by a welter of misinformation. Continue reading
This is the final round up before Christmas: normal service will resume in the new year. Please send us any items for inclusion in the next round up to inforrmeditorial@gmail.com.
Twenty-two claimants in the News of the World phone hacking litigation have accepted damages in settlement of their cases. Other cases are likely to settle by January, with a “substantial” number of claims going forward, as the BBC reports here. In October 2012 it was reported that there were 167 claims on the register. Continue reading
The recent changes in the media landscape have no doubt had an impact for libel lawyers in Northern Ireland. As advertising cuts continue to be made and the Leveson culture has exerted pressure on journalistic practice, the media are no doubt trying to resolve disputes in advance of legal proceedings being issued. Legal Aid is not available to libel claimants and conditional fee agreements and after the event insurance is not available in Northern Ireland, which also has an effect on the volume of this type of legal work. Continue reading
As 2012 draws to a close, it is timely to take stock of some of the more important developments in the area of media law this year.
The courts have been very active in building on the solid foundation of media freedom which section 16 of our constitution protects.
The most important decision of the year was the Constitutional Court’s ruling in September in the challenge brought by Print Media South Africa and the South African National Editors’ Forum against aspects of the Films and Publications Act of 1996. Continue reading
Is it possible that the government has at last taken on board the concerns expressed by the Law Society, Bar Council, Lawyers for Media Standards and many others made in numerous papers and articles about proposed reforms over the past two years, despite having pushed through the LASPO Act without amendment? Continue reading
Amid all the manoeuvring by Cameron & Co as they try to avoid making editors and proprietors of the national press genuinely accountable for what they do, the idea of a Royal Charter has surfaced.It is a seasonably folkloric and tinselly addition to the debate. Her Majesty’s Privy Counsellors, no doubt clad in breeches and kneeling in her presence, will ceremonially apply a red wax seal to a vellum scroll and lo, all the problems of press regulation will be magicked away. Continue reading
Just a few days before the Defamation Bill receives its line-by-line scrutiny in the House of Lords Grand Committee, the Joint Committee on Human Rights has published its report on the Bill.
The report centres on what the Joint Committee considers to be the key elements of the Defamation Bill that impact on human rights, being the proposed codification of the Reynolds defence in clause 4, the new defence for website operators in clause 5, and the proposed single publication rule in clause 8. In this post, I follow on from my previous postings about internet libel and clause 5 (see Part 1 and Part 2) by commenting on the Joint Committee’s recommendations as to clause 5. Continue reading
Journalisted, week ending Sunday 9 December 2012, Autumn statement, Starbucks tax and Nelson Mandela
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
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