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Media and Law: Overview of Defamation, Privacy and other Media Cases in 2017 [updated]

INFORRM

In 2017 the media courts heard more defamation trials and privacy injunctions than in either of the previous two years. The claimants succeeded in 60% of the defamation trials and in 62% of the injunction applications. Last year also saw an increased number of appeal judgments in media law cases.

But it is important to note that only two of the defamation trials concerned media publication – and none involved the mainstream media.  The most discussed trial of the year was the “Twitter libel” case of Monroe v Hopkins. Three of the trials were in claims for slander and most of the libel trials concerned disputes between private individuals.  Only two of the privacy injunction applications were against national newspapers.

The highest libel damages award of the year was the sum of £200,000 by Master McCloud, following a default judgment in the case of Zahawi v Press TV [2017] EWHC 1010 (QB).

There were 2 media law cases in the Supreme Court (Flood and Khuja) and 7 in the Court of Appeal.  The most important media law case of the year was Lachaux v Independent Print ([2017] EWCA Civ 1334) which dealt with ‘serious harm’ under section 1 of the Defamation Act 2013 and held that the section raised the threshold from substantiality to seriousness but did not require proof of actual damage to reputation.  There is a pending application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Defamation

Our Table of Media Law Cases records 36 decisions of all kinds in defamation cases in 2017 (there were 37 in 2016 and 56 in 2015).

There were 10 full defamation trials in 2017 – up from 8 in 2016 and 7 in 2015.  The claimants succeeded in 6 of them (60%) – in contrast to a claimant success rate of 38% in 2016 and 43% in 2015.

The trials were as follows:

There were 5 “damages only” trials  or hearings in 2017 (there were 3 in 2016)

There were also a number of “preliminary issues trials” and summary judgment applications, in particular:

 There were 6 Court of Appeal judgments dealing with issues arising in defamation cases:

Privacy and Breach of Confidence

There were no trials in claims for breach of confidence/misuse of private information (in contrast to 4 in 2016 and 4 in 2017).

There were a number of reported interim decisions in the case of Sir Cliff Richard v BBC – due for trial in 2018 (see [2017] EWHC 1291 (Ch); [2017] EWHC 1666 (Ch)).

Mann J continues to manage both the News Group and the Mirror Group phone hacking litigation.  There were no trials in 2017 – although one is listed in January 2017.

We are aware of 8 applications for interim injunctions in privacy and breach of confidence cases in 2017 (there were 5 in 2016).  Of these, 5 were successful and 3 were unsuccessful.

There was one Court of Appeal judgment in a breach of confidence case involving the media:

There was one case in the Supreme Court:

Conditional Fee Agreements

On 11 April 2017 the Supreme Court dismissed the appeals of the media in the cases of Flood v Times Newspapers, Miller v Associated Newspapers and Frost and others v MGN [2017] UKSC 33), upholding the conditional fee agreements in those cases.

We had a case comment from Aidan Wills and comments from a claimant’s perspective, a defence lawyer’s perspective and the perspective of someone who acts for both claimants and defendants.

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