We will however, continue to have the occasional post – catching up with some “Case Comments” and with news items. As usual, we invite posts from readers on “Media and Law” topics. Contact us via the Inforrm email: inforrmeditorial@gmail.com. And please let us know by email if there are topics which you think we should be covering.
The Hilary Term has been quite a busy one for English media lawyers.
There have been a two libel trials, Monroe v Hopkins [2017] EWHC 433 (QB) and Hourani v Thomson [2017] EWHC 432 (QB) (decisions handed down by Warby J on the same day). There have been two “offer of amends” cases, Barron v Collins [2017] EWHC 162 (QB) and Lisle-Mainwaring v Associated Newspapers [2017] EWHC (QB).
There have been a number of privacy and confidentiality injunction applications (ZXC v Bloomberg [2017] EWHC 328 (QB) and Brevan Howard v Reuters [2017] EWHC 644 (QB)), with at least one public judgment awaited.
The rising importance of of data protection law has been illustrated by a number of cases, notably HH Prince Hicham Ben Abullah Al Alaoui v Elaph Publishing [2017] EWCA Civ 29)(on the overlap between libel and data protection) and Stunt v Associated Newspapers [2017] EWHC 695 (QB).
Then, of course, there was the decision of the Supreme Court in Flood v Times Newspapers [2017] UKSC 33 – in which media law CFAs survived an Article 10 challenge. This is a very important decision on which we have already had five posts (and there will be more …).
The top ten posts of the term were as follows (in descending order)
- Case Preview: Jack Monroe v Katie Hopkins, Twitter libel trial about meaning and serious harm
- Case Report: Jack Monroe v Katie Hopkins, Libel Trial, Day 3: Claimants closing submissions, judgment reserved
- Defamation Act 2013: A Summary and Overview – Iain Wilson and Max Campbell
- How to avoid defamation – Steven Price
- How Dacre and the Mail are making the case for section 40 – Brian Cathcart
- Case Report: Jack Monroe v Katie Hopkins, Days 1 and 2: claimant’s evidence and defendant’s closing submissions
- News: Privacy injunction granted against the Sun, first reported privacy injunction of 2017
- Culture Media and Sport Select Committee unanimously defies the corporate press on regulation – Brian Cathcart
- Defamation Act 2013: A sensible balance or a step back? – Philip Steele
- Case Law: Jack Monroe v Katie Hopkins, Success for claimant in Twitter libel case – Nathan Capone
- Case Law: Dawson-Damer v Taylor Wessing, Subject access requests: Court of Appeal bolsters right to disclosure of data – Ashley Hurst and Peter Barratt