On 1 January 2014, the Defamation Act 2013 came into force in England and Wales, introducing a series of new provisions applicable to the law of libel and slander. Of greatest interest was Section 1 of the Act, the “serious harm” requirement. This introduced a new hurdle for persons and businesses wanting to bring a claim for defamation.
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Month: July 2016 (Page 1 of 4)
The case of Smith v Unknown Defendants [2016] EWHC 1775 (QB) was a libel action against unknown defendants who had published defamatory material on a website, the Queen’s Bench Division granted the claimant’s application for default judgment against the second defendant in his absence and granted summary relief of £10,000 in damages as well as injunctions prohibiting publication of further allegations and requiring the removal of any allegations placed elsewhere. Continue reading
The Court of Appeal gave judgment on 26 July 2016 in a case which the Mirror is suing a young single mother called Stephanie Ward from which whom it stole a story which the paper then published as an “exclusive” on its front page. Continue reading
In a post on 26 July 2016, I wrote about three curiosities arising from Part 5 of the Digital Economy Bill which provides for the sharing of information in government. There is however one further important curiosity relating to Part 5 of the Bill concerning information held by HMRC and arising from a case recently before the Supreme Court, R (Ingenious Media and Anr) v HMRC. Continue reading
A shipping magnate’s son who said he endured a five-week “public rubbishing” because of the actions of the father of a woman who accused him of rape has lost his libel action. Continue reading
In the case of CICAD v Switzerland (Judgment of 7 June 2016)(French only), the Third Section of the Court of Human Rights held that a judgment finding that an accusation of anti-semitism made by the applicant was unlawful did not violate Article 10. The Court refused to engage with issues as to the definition of “anti-semitism” but accepted the conclusions of the national court that such a serious allegation could not be justified. Continue reading
In a judgment which betrays the complete lack of familiarity the law of defamation of its panel of three the Court of Appeal has overturned decades of precedent on a key issue in defamation proceedings, which is the establishment at an early stage of the defamatory meaning/sting of a publication (the two terms being synonyms). Continue reading
In the recent weeks of political furore, readers may have missed the publication on 5 July of the Digital Economy Bill. The Bill contains a ragbag of provisions from controlling access to online pornography to regulation of the BBC. Continue reading
This is the last week of Trinity Legal Term, which ends on Friday 29 July 2016. The High Court and the appeal courts will be on “legal vacation” until the Michaelmas term begins on 3 October 2016. Continue reading
There is ample evidence that when used ethically and while abiding by the sublime ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you‘ principle, social media can be a force for good. It allows the forging of friendships, the increase in understanding between different social and ethnic groups, the communication of ideas and so forth. Continue reading
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