The most significant law and media news of the week was the announcement on Friday that the Independent newspapers are to close in March. The Independent is to be a digital-only product, whilst the i has been sold to regional publisher Johnston Press for £24 million. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Month: February 2016 (Page 3 of 5)
The decision of the Court of Appeal in Incedal ([2016] EWCA Crim 11) is profoundly important for open justice and the public understanding of the security threats faced by our communities and for the accountability of those tasked with combatting security threats. Continue reading
On Thursday 11 February 2016, the Joint Committee on the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill issued a 200-page report on the draft new law. It’s the next step in the scrutiny of a foundational piece of UK national security law – capabilities and safeguards on internet surveillance. Continue reading
What Leveson sought to achieve was a system that emasculated bullies on both sides of the argument. I am very sympathetic to small publishers who simply cannot withstand the financial risk of a litigation threat from a wealthy individual or organisation. The greatest impediment to asserting privacy rights or indeed rights to freedom of expression is usually financial constraints. Continue reading
The decision of Mr Justice Peter Smith in Sports Direct International plc v Rangers International Football Club plc and another [2016] EWHC 85 (Ch) to refuse to commit the respondent for contempt for alleged breach of an injunction shows the caution that the court will sometimes show when it comes to seeking to enforce injunctive relief. Continue reading
In her enormously impressive paper “Privacy, democracy and freedom of expression“, Annabelle Lever poses the question: must privacy and freedom of expression conflict? I would like to begin by addressing this question. My answer to that is no, they need not always conflict and in my experience a failure to respect privacy can have a direct impact upon freedom of expression. Continue reading
A study out last week calls on journalists to include more direct quotes from migrants when reporting on migration, claiming that: “quotations are important… because they highlight whether an individual has exerted an influence on the way in which the story has been shaped by the journalist.” But its call for balanced reporting assumes that all reporting is actually accurate in the first place. Continue reading
Recent media regulatory changes in Poland elicited strong reactions from international institutions and the European Union. In his letter to the Polish President Andrzej Duda, Thorbjørn Jagland, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, expressed particular concern about the new law “and the impact it may have on the integrity and independence of public service media, as a vital condition for genuine democracy”. Dunja Miljatović, OSCE Representative on the Freedom of the Media, warned that the controversial new Act gives the Government “direct control over management positions in the PSB.” On 13 January, the European Commission took an unprecedented move to launch an investigation into the rule of law in Poland. Continue reading
In the case of Ewing v Crown Court sitting at Cardiff and Newport ([2016] EWHC 183 (Admin)) the Divisional Court confirmed an important feature of the open justice principle: that permission is not needed in order to take notes in Court. Although the Court may, for good reason, withdraw the liberty to take notes, the default position is that anyone who attends a public hearing is free to take notes. Continue reading
The Court of Appeal today dismissed an appeal brought by a number of media organisations against continuing restrictions on reporting the trial of Erol Incedal. In a judgment given by Lord Thomas CJ, Guardian News And Media Ltd & Ors v R. & Incedal ([2016] EWCA Crim 11), the Court upheld reporting restrictions which had covered parts of the trial which were held in private. Continue reading
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