Today is the tenth birthday of the Inforrm blog – which began operation on 22 January 2010. Our first post – “Welcome to Inforrm” – attracted 2 visitors in January 2010 and the site had a total of 7 page views that month.
That was the only post for that month. The posting rate and visitor numbers have since increased dramatically. In the last nine years we have had a total of over 4,900 posts and (as we noted a few days ago) 5 million page views.
The media law issues we have debated have changed over the years. If 2010 was the year of libel reform, the focus in 2011 moved to privacy, The first half of 2011 saw the “Super-Injunction spring”. In 2011 to 2012 there was phone hacking followed by the Leveson Inquiry – which reported in November 2012.
The discussion in 2013 was dominated by the Leveson Report and the debate about its implementation. In 2014 we had the coming into force of the Defamation Act 2013 – which had been the result of the libel reform debate which partly inspired our launch – phone hacking and Operation Elveden trials and Google Spain.
In 2015 we had the Mirror Phone Hacking damages trial and appeal, the development of a body of case law on the Defamation Act 2013 and the continuing importance of data protection issues. And privacy injunctions seemed to be making a slow comeback …
In 2016 the mini-revival of the privacy injunction continued, notably with PJS v News Group in the Supreme Court (our post on the Court of Appeal decision granting the injunction is our second most popular of all time). The Courts continued to grapple with the Defamation Act 2013 and data protection issues began to bubble to the surface. The press regulation debate continued – culminating in the DCMS Consultation on section 40 and Leveson 2.
In 2017 we had the creation of the new “Media and Communications List” in the High Court. The Supreme Court refused to strike down media CFAs but reasserted the importance of open justice. The Court of Appeal reinterpreted the meaning of serious harm in the Defamation Act 2013 and Inforrm reached 4 million hits. From a global perspective the most controversial issue was “Fake News” – with many posts devoted to questions as to what it was and how to deal with it. Our post on the Top 10 Defamation cases of this year became one of the most popular ever.
In 2018, we had a series of posts on the Government’s cancellation of Part 2 of the Leveson Inquiry. the failed attempt by the House of Lords to reintroduce the inquiry in the Data Protection Bill and the unsuccessful application for judicial review of the cancellation decision. There was the first English “right to be forgotten” case and the most high profile case of the year was that brought by Sir Cliff Richard against the BBC. It was also the year of “Cambridge Analytica” and the GDPR.
In 2019 there were new civil procedure rules, practice directions and pre-action protocols for Media and Communications cases (in what is now a specialist list). The Supreme Court gave a definitive ruling on the meaning of section 1 of the Defamation Act 2013 and the Court of Appeal permitted a “representative action” for damages in a data protection case.
In 2020 we will continue our coverage of media and legal issues – case law from Britain, Europe and around the world and other issues such as social media and cyberbullying. All suggestions for topics from our readers are welcomed. To celebrate our birthday we will, over the next two days, be publishing an entertaining two part analysis by Paul Wragg of the Defence submitted by Associated Newspapers Limited in the Duchess of Sussex’s privacy and copyright case.
We would like to thank all our readers and contributors over the past 10 years. The top posts over this period have been from a number of outside authors – taking a range of different views on the issues (see the list in our recent post celebrating “5 million page views“). Our intention continues to be to serve as a “forum” for debating issues and we would encourage readers to offer contributions on any issue concerning media responsibility, media law and the other topics which we have been writing about. Contact us at inforrmeditorial@gmail.com
Great blog, many thanks, and keep up the good work.
Happy Anniversary and thank you for all the information including also Malta where I was one of the main campaigners against the Criminal Libel against Maltese Journalists and which was at last removed. I also thank you for your support for me when I was accused in the Maltese Courts by a Maltese Government Member of Parliament and later a Minister, which three Criminal Libels he filed against me I have won. Thank you thank you.
Happy anniversary and thanks for the important information.