What do Russell Brand, the owner of Chessington World of Adventures and an anonymised partner of a law firm and a company director all have in common? They have all claimed to have been harassed and have sought anti-harassment injunctions over the summer. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Month: October 2014 (Page 3 of 5)
Revenge porn – the distribution of a private sexual image of someone without their consent and with the intention of causing them distress – will become a specific offence under the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill (“the Bill”), currently going through Parliament.
The current press outrage about police using the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIPA) makes for interesting debate. Many are surprised. But it isn’t a new police tactic. It was used at least as far back as Operation Caryatid – the original MPS investigation into phone hacking by Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire. Continue reading
Last week’s Court of Appeal decision in OPO v MLA ([2014] EWCA Civ 1277) week is the most bewildering judgment for many years. A man who had “obtained a high degree of distinction in his chosen career” had written a book which covered among other things his childhood sexual abuse at school. Continue reading
We begin with two interesting judgments which were handed down this week, one by the High Court and one by the Court of Appeal, following hearings last term and in the summer legal vacation. Continue reading
For the first time since the start of the hacking enquiries, the British Press is speaking with one voice in its condemnation of the police use of special powers to investigate journalists’ phone records. Continue reading
In a new book published by Harvard University Press, “Hate Crimes in Cyber Space” Prof. Danielle Citron lays her prescription for tackling the “awful internet”. In the wake of the Fappening and innumerable cases of cyber harassment, hers is a timely and authoritative intervention. Since Prof. Citron has already testified before Parliament on cyber hate and sits on the influential Anti-Cyberhate Working Group, her book and views are likely to inform future policy and legislation towards the internet. Continue reading
The new report, written by Rachael Craufurd Smith and Yolande Stolte, presents the results of a project byAccess Info Europe and the Open Society Program on Independent Journalism that surveyed of media ownership transparency rules in 20 EU and neighbouring countries in 2012. Continue reading
The decision in Firma EDV für Sie, EfS Elektronische Datenverarbeitung Dienstleistungs GmbH v Germany (App No, 32783/08, 2 September 2014) involved a consideration of the interesting question as to whether a company has a right to reputation under Article 8. The Fifth Section of the Court proceeded on the basis that a company did have such rights. The application was, however, found to be inadmissible on the basis that a fair balance had been struck between Articles 8 and 10 by the domestic court. Continue reading
The Sunday Mirror’s use of a fake Twitter account to trick an MP into sending ‘selfies’ of himself in bed has raised renewed questions about whether journalists are justified in using entrapment in the public interest. The paper’s editor, Alison Phillips, has strongly defended the sting as being in the public interest. Continue reading
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