Convictions for crimes under a law used to prosecute internet “trolls” have increased eight-fold in a decade, official figures have shown. Last year 1,209 people were found guilty of offences under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 – equivalent to three every day – compared with 143 in 2004. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Month: May 2015 (Page 1 of 6)
It has become something of a received wisdom amongst Fleet Street editors that the Conservatives’ election victory means “Leveson is dead”. Their unalloyed glee has been fuelled by a few Conservative nods and winks during the campaign suggesting that, despite a framework for press self-regulation that has was endorsed by a huge cross-party majority in the last Parliament, a Conservative government would not pursue it. Or, in the words of former Culture Secretary Sajid Javid: “Our job is done as a government. It’s up to the press.” Continue reading
This post examines a recent opinion from the Florida Court of Appeals that involves domestic violence and “cyberstalking.” Horowitz v. Horowitz, 2015 WL 1443223 (District Court of Appeals of Florida – Second District 2015). The best explanation of how the case arose appears in the brief Sammie D. Horowitz filed in appealing a judge’s entry of an “injunction for protection against domestic violence” against him. Horowitz v. Horowitz, Initial Brief of Appellant, 2013 WL 7101921 District Court of Appeals of Florida – 2d District 2013). Continue reading
In BUQ v HRE, Mr Justice Warby granted the claimant summary judgment and a permanent injunction prohibiting the disclosure of private information even though a cross-application to commit the claimant for contempt of court was to be determined at a later date. Continue reading
The decision in Ben Grubb and Telstra Corporation Limited ([2015] AICmr 35) is fascinating. It was issued on 1 May 2015 by Timothy Pilgrim, the Australian Privacy Commissioner – especially in the light of our recent posts, such as this one concerning Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and their roles as mere conduits and/or data controllers, or that one concerning the definitions of metadata. Continue reading
For some years in the early and mid 2000s, a routine form of news-gathering in the Mirror Group was phone hacking – listening to voicemails left for celebrities by their friends, and then dishing up revelations in their papers. And this judgment amounts to a comprehensive pay-back time for the years of distress and upset sustained by those celebrities, as the ins and outs of their private lives were played out for the Mirror Group’s profit. The damages awarded well exceeded those previously payable, as justified in the tour de force of a judgment by Mann J in Gulati v MGN ([2015] EWHC 1482 (Ch)). Continue reading
A High Court judge has criticised the “secretive culture of the public service” and strongly criticised the evidence given by two senior civil servants in a freedom of information battle over the ministerial diary of former health secretary Andrew Lansley. Continue reading
The big corporate papers are encouraging the idea that the result of the general election means the end of the Leveson process. Although this claim is hardly surprising given their wild-eyed desperation to avoid any form of meaningful accountability, it is wrong. Continue reading
Preliminary hearings on meaning are becoming the norm in defamation actions, as parties view them as a relatively cheap and efficient way of determining a key issue at the outset. In Barron MP & Others v Jane Collins MEP [2015] EWHC 1125 (QB), three Labour MPs for constituencies in the Rotherham area brought a libel action against a UKIP candidate over a speech she made at the UKIP Conference. Continue reading
One of the most interesting court cases for followers of the phone hacking scandal is about to begin. Neil Wallis, one of the biggest figures in tabloid journalism, goes on trial at the Old Bailey next week (3 June 2015) accused of conspiring to intercept the phone messages of newsworthy individuals. Continue reading
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