On Wednesday 25 November 2015, Warby J handed down judgment after the first media defamation trial of this legal year, Yeo v Times Newspapers ([2015] EWHC 3375 (QB)). The claim was dismissed. This was a comprehensive and devastating defeat for former Tory MP Tim Yeo whose evidence was described by the judge as “unreliable and untruthful”. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Month: November 2015 (Page 1 of 4)
Pictures of bonny Prince George may well become a lot less common following a landmark ruling. Media pictures of the children of celebrities are now clearly off limits – unless their parents consent to publication. The Court of Appeal has confirmed a High Court decision last year giving three of Paul Weller’s children total of £10,000 damages for breaching their right to privacy. This will have far-reaching adverse effects on the freedom of the UK media. Continue reading
The major Supreme Court media law case heard in the October Term 2014 was Elonis v United States. The judgment [pdf] was handed down on 1 June 2015, and reversed and remanded the Third Circuit. The case is the first which the Supreme Court has heard on the question of speech on social media. Continue reading
New research by the Media Reform Coalition shows how large sections of the press appeared to set out systematically to undermine Jeremy Corbyn in his first week as Labour Leader with a barrage of overwhelmingly negative coverage. Continue reading
When, in 1932, a Full Court of the Victorian Supreme Court considered, for the first time, how the rules of defamation law might apply to that new-fangled technology, the radio, one of the judges bemoaned that: Continue reading
The Court of Protection (“CoP”) has just announced its first pilot project: on transparency. The pilot project will reverse the presumption in the Court of Protection Rules 2007 that hearings are heard in private. Continue reading
The High Court has today dismissed an action by Tim Yeo, the former MP for South Suffolk and Chairman of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee, against Times Newspapers Limited in an important judgment on the Reynolds defence and the scope of politicians’ Article 8 rights ([2015] EWHC 3375 (QB)). Continue reading
The Culture, Media and Sport Committee have launched an inquiry in the wake of the recent cyber-attack on the TalkTalk website on 21 October, which affected nearly 157,000 customers and 1,200,000 email addresses, names and phone numbers as well as details relating to thousands of bank accounts, credit and debit cards. Continue reading
Yesterday’s front page headline in the Sun covers almost the entire page. Accompanied by a chilling photo of a knife-wielding “Jihadi John” in black balaclava, it proclaims “1 IN 5 BRIT MUSLIMS’ SYMPATHY FOR JIHADIS”. It is a lie. Even worse, it is a shameful distortion of its own polling data, consciously designed to fuel terror and distrust of Muslims. Continue reading
The most important judgment of the week was in the case of Weller v Associated Newspapers ([2015] EWCA Civ 1176). MailOnline lost its appeal against a High Court decision that the publication of seven paparazzi photos of Paul Weller’s children which were published in 2012 under the headline “A family day out: Paul Weller takes wife Hannah and his twin sons out for a spot of shopping in the hot LA sun”. Continue reading
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