On Wednesday 8 May 2024, the Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation Bill [pdf] returned to the House of Commons for its Committee Stage. The agreed amendments to the bill included the removal of the requirement to prove subjective intention. Inforrm has commented on the Bill recently, see here and here.

The publisher of the Daily Mail has “denied under oath” that it engaged in phone-hacking and other illegal newsgathering methods against Prince Harry and others. Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL) is the corporate entity defending the case brought by the likes of Prince Harry, Sir Elton John and Doreen Lawrence. The Parent company DMG Media said in a statement: “In papers submitted to the High Court, the publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday denied under oath that its journalists had commissioned or obtained information derived from phone hacking, phone tapping, bugging, computer or email hacking or burglary to order“. The Press Gazette has more information here.

Data and Privacy

A cyberattack on the Ministry of Defence’s payroll contractor has breached the personal information of current and former UK military members. The data breach stole “personal (HM Revenue and Customs)-style information,” though it did not affect the military’s operational systems. BBC News has more information here.

Surveillance

The BBC provides an update on the ongoing a claim related to alleged surveillance by the Police Service of Northern Ireland against journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney.

Trade union leaders from 11 European countries have asked respective data protection authorities to examine Amazon’s employee monitoring practices. Their request comes after France’s DPA, the Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés, fined the retail giant for excessive surveillance claims, which Amazon has disputed. Euronews has more information here.

Newspaper and Journalism

On Thursday 9 May 2024, the UK’s independent authority on press standards, the Press Recognition Panel (PRP) published a report reviewing the activities of IPSO, the complaints-handler controlled by the press. Hacked Off comments on the report’s findings here.

IPSO

Events

The ICO has opened registration for its annual Data Protection Practitioners’ Conference, which is due to be held online on Tuesday 8 October 2024. The event is free and will cover data protection and freedom of information legislation. Sign up here and access the latest agenda and speaker announcements here.

Statements in Open Court and Apologies

On Tuesday 7 May 2024, a statement was published in settlement of the Employment Tribunal proceedings between Shaima Dallali and the National Union of Students.

On Wednesday 8 May 2024, The Daily Mail apologised to Dale Vince, the green energy industrialist, environmental campaigner and co-owner of Forest Green Rovers, for defaming him in articles by Andrew Pierce published on the MailOnline on 17 March 2024 and in the print edition of The Daily Mail on 18 March 2024. The Mail has also agreed to pay substantial libel damages, which Mr Vince has indicated that he intends to donate to charity, as well as legal costs.

On Thursday 9 May 2024, there was a statement in open court in the case of Lu v Telegraph Media Group Limited KB-2024-001213. The Telegraph has agreed to pay substantial damages to business and tech entrepreneur Lu Heng after accusing him in an article published on its website of disrupting organisations that provide IP addresses to different continents.

New Issued cases

There was one defamation (libel and slander) claim filed on the media and communications list last week.

Last week in the courts

On Tuesday 7 and Wednesday 8 May 2024, there was a final hearing in the case of MBR Acres v Persons Unknown QB-2021-003094.

On Wednesday 8 May 2024, there was a directions hearing in the case of Specialty Coffee Association Limited and another v Odushola KB-2023-002556.

On Thursday 9 May 2024, there was a permission to appeal hearing in the case of Camacho v OCS Group UK Limited QA-2022-000117.

As mentioned above, on the same day there was a statement in open court in the case of Lu v Telegraph Media Group Limited KB-2024-001213.

Also on the same day, there was a preliminary issues hearing in the case of Jeremy Vine v Joey Barton KB-2024-000733. Read the 5RB summary here.

Media law in other jurisdictions

Australia

Synergy 360 chief executive David Milo has dropped his defamation lawsuit against Nine over reports that he engaged in corrupt practices with ex-federal frontbencher Stuart Robert. The publisher, in its defence, said it could prove Synergy and Mr Milo “engaged in corrupt conduct” with Mr Robert when he sat on the Liberal front bench. Whether Nine’s claims are true will no longer be tested in court after the lawsuit was discontinued by Synergy 360 and Mr Milo. The Canberra Times has more information here.

Canada

On 7 May 2024, the Court of Appeal for British Columbia dismissed the appeal in Simán v Eisenbrandt, 2024 BCCA 176 (CanLII). The appellant appealed the dismissal of his defamation action under the Protection of Public Participation Act. The chambers judge concluded that there was substantial merit to the appellant’s claim that the words were defamatory. However, he dismissed the action on the basis that the appellant did not show grounds to believe that the defence of responsible communication had no real prospect of success. The Court of Appeal held that the judge erred in his analysis of the defence of responsible communication in finding that the impugned statements could constitute reportage. However, the error does not affect the overall conclusion that the appellant did not meet his onus to show there are grounds to believe that the defence had no prospect of success. Although the order dismissing the action may be upheld on this basis alone, the appellant also failed to show that the public interest in allowing the proceeding to continue outweighed the public interest in protecting the respondent’s expression.

United States

TikTok and ByteDance have initiated legal action against the US government, challenging a recently enacted law that would ban TikTok unless ByteDance sells the company off in the next nine months to an entity not controlled by a foreign adversary. Petitioners argue that the law infringes on constitutional rights in several ways: the First Amendment, the prohibition against bills of attainder, and the Equal Protection Clauses and Takings Clauses of the Fifth Amendment. They are seeking a declaration from the court that the law is unconstitutional and an injunction to prevent the Attorney General from enforcing the law. The Evan Law blog provides a full rundown of the constitutional issues here.

Research and Resources

 Next week in the courts

On Monday 13 May 2024 there will be an application for permission to appeal in the case of Saddler v Chiltern Support and Housing Ltd KA-2023-000055, before Linden J.

On Tuesday 14 May 2024 there will be an application for security for costs in the case of Sikhs for Justice and another v Ranger KB-2022-004490 and a statement in open court in the case of Davies -v- BBC–KB-2024-000828.

On Thursday 16 May 2024 there will be an injunction application in the privacy case of Department for Education v Hercules KB-2024-000389

Reserved judgements

Harrison v Cameron, heard 26 March 2024 (Steyn J)

BW Legal Services Limited v Trustpilot,  heard 7 March 2024 (HHJ Lewis)

Unity Plus Healthcare Limited v Clay and others,  heard 1 March 2024 (HHJ Lewis)

Vince v Associated Newspapers, heard 19 February 2024 (HHJ Lewis)

Pacini v Dow Jones, heard 13 December 2023 (HHJ Parkes KC)

Mueen-Uddin v Secretary of State for the Home Department, heard 1 and 2 November 2023 (UK Supreme Court)

George v Cannell and another, heard 17-18 October 2023 (UK Supreme Court)

Harcombe v Associated Newspapers, heard 3 to 7 and 10 to 11 July 2023 (Nicklin J)

MBR Acres v FREE THE MBR BEAGLES, heard 24-28 April 2023, 2-5, 9, 11-12, 15, 17-18, 22-23 May 2023 (Nicklin J)

This Round Up was compiled by Colette Allen who is the host of Newscast on Dr Thomas Bennett and Professor Paul Wragg’s The Media Law Podcast (@MediaLawPodcast).