Day 46: A close relative of Jude Law was secretly paid by the News of the World for supplying information about the actor, Andy Coulson’s lawyer suggested today. At the Old Bailey, Timothy Langdale QC wrote down and passed to the Hollywood star the names of three associates he suggested had been feeding information to the Sunday tabloid at the time his phone was being hacked. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Month: January 2014 (Page 3 of 9)
A group of UK Google users called ‘Safari Users Against Google’s Secret Tracking’ have claimed that the tracking and collation of information about of their internet usage by Google amounts to misuse of personal information, and a breach of the Data Protection Act 1998. In this judgment (Vidal Hall and Ors v Google Inc [2014] EWHC 13 (QB)) the Judge confirmed that misuse of personal information was a distinct tort. He also held that the English courts had jurisdiction to try the claims. Continue reading
We begin with a rare Court of Appeal libel judgment and another defeat for the Daily Mail. In Miller v Associated Newspapers ([2014] EWCA Civ 39) the Court dismissed an appeal by the newspaper against a judgment fgiven on 21 December 2012 ([2013] EWHC 3721 (QB)) following a trial between 21 and 25 May 2013. Continue reading
The Daily Mail this week accused Hacked Off, the Media Standards Trust and Sir David Bell of reducing the late Lord McAlpine to a state of misery in the final year of his life, and insinuated that all three contributed to causing his death. Continue reading
Last year was a busy year for the media in South Africa. There have again been a number of court decisions that have given the media the breathing space it needs to function in our democracy. Continue reading
Last November, the Guardian published in full, on page 10 of the print edition, a PCC adjudication that it had breached clause 1 of the Editor’s Code in three articles about the role of Queen’s private secretary, Sir Christopher Geidt. Continue reading
Social media offers its users an extraordinary and unprecedented freedom to communicate and let their voice be heard. But the abuse, bullying, harassment and trolling that has taken place in recent months on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and ask.fm has not gone unnoticed. Continue reading
Day 45: Between 8 and 10 computers and mobile phones registered to former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks are missing, police told the phone hacking trial today. Operation Weeting detectives spent months piecing together a picture of Mrs Brooks’s computer equipment using data from the wifi router at her Oxfordshire home, an asset list from News International and records from mobile phone networks. Continue reading
The Campaign for Freedom of Information (“CFOI”) has an immediate and short term cash-flow problem. Despite its modest expenditure, CFOI needs to raise nearly £25,000 to ensure its survival through to the end of March 2014. CFOI has launched an urgent appeal for funds, to which donations can be made online. CFOI asks you to support it now. Continue reading
“Resolution” of complaints from members of the public at the Press Complaints Commission (“PCC”) can include the sending of ‘private letters of apology’. Tracking down some of these proves instructive. Continue reading
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