This is the seventh instalment in a regular series from Inforrm highlighting press and case reports of new media and information cases from around the world.  It is intended to complement our United States: Monthly Round Up posts.  Please let us know if there are other cases and jurisdictions which we should be covering.

In the Media

Australia

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that the Australian government was monitoring TikTok very closely amid rising concerns that the social media platform could be compelled to share users’ information with the Chinese government. This comes after calls to ban the platform, the Guardian notes.

New York Times Australia has posted piece on diversity in Australian media following Black Lives Matter commentary.

The Guardian reports that, six journalists, five being Australian, are being interrogated in by Malaysian Authorities in connection with attempts to broadcast a documentary about migrant workers in Kuala Lumpur in the midst of Covid-19. The journalists have been accused of sedition of defamation.

The Australian Federal Appeals court has upheld the decision in the Geoffrey Rush defamation case, the BBC reports. Mr Rush was awarded A$2.9m following a successful defamation case against Nationwide News in April last year.

The OAIC and the UK’s ICO have opened a joint investigation into the facial data recognition company Clearview AI following its use of data scrapping processes to form a database of over 3 billion people’s faces.

Canada

The Vancouver Courier considers the need for Canadian law privacy reforms in the wake of the Schrems case.

Cyprus

In Cyprus the Schengen committee for personal data has completed its review of the countries data protection laws, finding the laws are adequate.

Hong Kong

Voice of America has considered how Hong Kong is loosing attractiveness as Asia’s international media hub in the wake of new national security laws. The New York Times has moved staff out of the country following the institution of the law.

CNBC has highlighted that some VPN providers have shut down their Hon Kong servers amid concerns over the new security law.

India

Nepal has lodged a complaint against India media alleging they have conducted a “baseless smear campaign”, the Hindustan Times has coverage.

The Global Legal Post has considered India’s pseudo GDPR data protection bill.

Pakistan

The Washington Post uses the case study of a journalists defamation case against ARY to highlight pressures on media freedoms.

Singapore

Lexology has considered pending updates to Singapore’s data protection laws.

In the Courts

Australia   

Nationwide News Pty Limited v Rush [2020] FCAFC 115, in the Federal Court of Australia the dismissal of the appeal against the award of damages to Geoffrey Rush for defamation.

Cosco v Huntley (No2) [2020] NSWSC 893, in the Supreme Court of New South Wales,  re-publication by national broadcaster of interview in which neighbour defames plaintiff. Damages awarded in the sum of AUS$300,000.

Domenic Gatto v Australian Broadcasting Corporation & Ors [2020] VSC 420, a finding that, given civil jury trails were postponed due to covid-19, that continuing a defamation trail normally required to be before jury before a judge alone did not prejudice the rights of the parties.

Green v Fairfax [2020] WASC 250, in the Supreme Court of Western Australia, a case concerning procedural elements of a defamation claim at substantive length and the correct manner for pleading cases via a Particulars of Claim which were partially insufficient for purpose.

New Zealand

Craig v Stringer [2020] NZCA 260 the question of whether asking for a witness to return for the fourth successive time to give evidence in a defamation trial constituted an abuse of process. The appeal was allowed and the order for stay set aside.

This Round up was complied by Suneet Sharma a junior legal professional with a particular interest and experience in media, information and privacy law.