The case of Theodora Dallas, the juror found to be in contempt of court after conducting online research, is now being considered by the European Court of Human Rights. She was found guilty of contempt and sentenced to 6 months imprisonment ([2012] EWHC 156 (Admin)). She subsequently applied to the Court of Human Rights which has now communicated the case to the UK government. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Month: December 2013 (Page 5 of 5)
The Old Bailey “phone hacking” trial of eight defendants on seven charges is about to begin its sixth week. It involves issues of great public importance concerning the press. The trial has been well covered in a number of newspapers but the most striking feature of the first five weeks has been the coverage on social media. This has become the first great trial of the social media era. Continue reading
In its judgment in the case of Ungváry and Irodalom Kft v. Hungary ([2013] ECHR 1229), the Second Section of the Court of Human Rights held that defamation judgments against a historian and a literary weekly violated Article 10. The decision in relation to the historian (which was by a 4:3 majority) involved, once again, the questionable application of the “Axel Springer criteria” for balancing Articles 8 and 10 in the defamation context. The case gives rise to a number of difficult legal and factual issues. Continue reading
David Yelland, former editor of the Sun, gave the first Leveson anniversary lecture in London on 29 November 2013.1 In it he argued that, in resisting regulation, newspapers are in denial about their own power, and that, to remedy the ‘reputational disaster’ that has befallen journalism, they need to accept the Leveson proposals. He gave a number of telling examples of what’s wrong with the press from his own experience. Continue reading
The news that ‘Clare’s Law’, by which according to the BBC ‘enables women to check the police record of a new boyfriend’ will be expanded to cover the whole of England and Wales fills me with unease. On the surface it seems to offer a simple tool in the fight against what is a truly horrendous problem – but I find myself wondering whether the process and the implications of this law have been properly thought through. Continue reading
This was Week 5 of the phone hacking trial of Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson and six others at the Old Bailey. On Monday, the Court heard a tape of conversation between Clive Goodman and Andrew Coulson. It later heard evidence from Eimear Cook about a conversation she had with Rebekah Brooks. Continue reading
One year ago, Lord Justice Leveson delivered his damning report on the “culture, practices and ethics” of the British press. Called into action following the revelations of widespread phone hacking at the best-selling (and now defunct) News of the World tabloid, Leveson concluded that sections of the press “had wreaked havoc with the lives of innocent people whose rights and liberties have been disdained.” Continue reading
November 2013 was a record breaking month for Inforrm. We had the highest number of posts in a single month (81) and a record 70,000 page views. We are rapidly approaching 2,000,000 page views since we began blogging in 2010. Continue reading
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