The non-denial denial has long been famous as a cringingly bad attempt to avoid blame (or telling the truth), where over-qualification either weakens the denial, or kills it completely. “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky,” or “We have no plans [before the election] to introduce tuition fees.” Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Month: February 2015 (Page 4 of 6)
Have a look at the website of the Press Gazette, the trade publication. Read the output of some newspaper media columnists. Follow commentary on recent court cases. You will soon see that the press industry in the UK considers itself a victim, relentlessly oppressed by the state, the courts, the rich, the powerful and the politically correct. Continue reading
In a statement published in today’s Daily Mirror Trinity Mirror the owner of the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and the Sunday People has apologised publicly to “all its victims of phone hacking”. Continue reading
Everyone in New Zealand was talking about the law of privacy last week. This was not because of an important new Supreme Court decision or an interesting legislative proposal. It was because the previous Friday night, two colleagues in a Christchurch insurance firm had late-evening sex in their office, with the lights on, in full view of a pub full of people across the road. Continue reading
The former chief reporter for The Sun has agreed that there were “no limits” on who the paper would pay for information, including the police, prison officers and nursing staff at state hospitals. Continue reading
The Prime minister starts every day by reading The Sun a jury was told yesterday. The claim came during the testimony of the tabloid’s former chief reporter John Kay, who when challenged by the judge about how he would know that replied “I can assure you of that” Continue reading
The Northern Ireland Law Commission is currently consulting on reforms to defamation law [pdf]. Many mooted reforms relate closely to those reflected in the Defamation Act 2013 (see Part 1). In addition, the NILC is consulting on the desirability of a further reform option. This would comprise two inter-related changes: first, the withdrawal of the “single meaning rule”, and secondly, the introduction of a bar to the bringing of claims where a publisher has corrected or retracted a possible meaning promptly and prominently. Continue reading
On 12 June 2014, the Fifth Section of the Court of Human Rights held that judgment of a French Court arising out of a story that Monaco’s reigning monarch, Prince Albert II, had an illegitimate child was a violation of Article 10. Continue reading
While the Defamation Bill progressed through Parliament, neither the Scottish Parliament nor the Northern Ireland Assembly passed a consent motion to extend the legislation to those jurisdictions in full (the former did adopt sections 6 and 7 of the Act). Last week, the Scottish Law Commission announced that defamation would comprise one element of its ninth programme of law reform. The NI Law Commission has published a study of the law and is currently consulting on possible reforms [pdf]. The consultation closes on 20 February 2015. Continue reading
In the wake of the Leveson Inquiry, several newspaper groups created a new self-regulator, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (“IPSO”) in place of the discredited Press Complaints Commission (“PCC”). IPSO isn’t independent at all – like the PCC, it is funded and controlled by big newspaper groups – but editors talked up the new organisation. They claimed it would provide the toughest regime of press regulation in the world, and talked about million-pound fines. So are they really worried? Continue reading
Recent Judgments
© 2026 Inforrm's Blog
Theme by Anders Norén — Up ↑