The Defamation Act 2013 came into force on 1 January 2014. This article is a short introduction to the various provisions of the Act. Is it not a comprehensive guide to the law of libel (which is not limited to this Act) and not intended as a substitute for legal advice. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Month: January 2014 (Page 5 of 9)
Day 41: News International’s head of security Mark Hanna told a colleague he had “burnt stuff” in his back garden around the time of the closure of the News of the World, the hacking trial heard today. Continue reading
Case Law, Strasbourg: Ruusunen v Finland, The Private of Life of a Prime Minister – Dominic Crossley
The right to privacy for a European head of state has hardly been more topical. Just as we (perhaps more so than the French) are transfixed by the surreptitious scooter-shenanigans of President Francois Hollande, the European Court of Human Rights publishes its judgment in a case concerning the privacy of the Finnish ex-Prime-Minister Matti Vanhanen, Ruusunen v Finland. Continue reading
The phone hacking trial continued at the Old Bailey this week, with evidence being heard on Monday 13 January, Tuesday 14 January and Wednesday 15 January. It now seems likely that the case will not conclude until June 2014. Continue reading
Evidence seems to be mounting that mass surveillance isn’t actually very good at dealing with terrorism. Hot on the heels of the admission by the NSA that their mass surveillance of telephone call data had only been helpful in a single terrorism-related case, a detailed new report by the New America Foundation seems to suggest that their other surveillance programmes, including the PRISM programme, are also conspicuously ineffective. Continue reading
On 1 January 2014 the Defamation Act 2013 come into force, bringing about significant changes to the law of defamation. The reforms include a new threshold test of “serious harm”, a number of new defences, a new single publication rule, as well as new provisions regarding secondary publishers. Continue reading
A delegation from the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) arrived in the UK this week to investigate “The British Government’s actions relating to newspaper regulation and the handling of state surveillance.” Continue reading
Before the Christmas break, twitter indicated how it intends to tackle two of its main challenges in 2014, namely: trolls and the spread of false information. This article provides a brief summary of these strategies (one of which was disclosed by a leak) and comments on their effectiveness. Continue reading
In November 2013, the month of the first anniversary of the publication of the Leveson Report, thePress Complaints Commission (PCC) published some of the details of 37 complaints from the public that it claims to have ‘resolved’. Continue reading
Mr Justice Tugendhat yesterday gave judgment in the case of Vidal-Hall and Others v Google Inc [2014] EWHC 13 (QB). A group of claimants complained about Google’s tracking and collating information relating to their internet usage on the Apple Safari browser without their consent. Continue reading
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