WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was released from a British prison last week for a remote Pacific island, where he plead guilty to a conspiracy charge as part of a plea deal with the US Justice Department on Tuesday 25 June 2024. The agreement will free Assange and end the years long legal battle over the publication of classified documents.

Assange was charged with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information. On entering the guilty plea, Assange returned to his homeland Australia a free man. Read Doughty Street’s press release here. The New York Times, Aljazeera, CNN, Sky News, Guardian and BBC are some of the many outlets to cover the deal.  

Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage has engaged Carter-Ruck’s services over a Mail on Sunday story quoting Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemning him as being “infected with ‘virus of Putin’”. In a video message posted yesterday on X, Farage said “Ten years ago I predicted there would be war in Ukraine because I thought Putin would use Nato and EU expansion.” But he added: “I’ve never supported his administration in any way.” The Press Gazette has more information here.

Prince Harry has been ordered to explain to the High Court how private messages to the ghostwriter of his memoir were “destroyed” amid their potential relevance to his legal action against the publisher of The Sun. Fancourt J said the apparent deletion of the duke’s exchanges with John Moehringer on the Signal messaging platform, as well as drafts of Spare, before the book’s publication was “not transparently clear”. He ordered Harry to make an interim payment of £60,000 in legal costs to News Group Newspapers after ruling largely in favour of the publisher’s bid for a wider search for evidence. The Press Gazette has more information here.

Data Privacy and Data Protection

With the UK General Election set for 4 July 2024, RPC provides its take on what the conservative and labour manifestos say, or don’t say, about cyber and tech.

Surveillance

Privacy International has published its submission to the UN Special Rapporteur regarding the rapid expansion of technologies in educational settings. These technologies included a wide array of tools that allow the surveillance of students and academic staff, to the detriment of their privacy and academic freedom.

Events 

The Information Commissioner’s Office is holding the Data Protection Practitioners’’ Conference on Tuesday 8 October 2024, online. The event will include keynote speakers, workshops and panels. Register for free here.

IPSO

Statements in Open Court and Apologies

We are not aware of any statements in open court or apologies from the last week.

New Issued Cases

There were three defamation (libel and slander) claims and two applications for injunctions filed on the media and communications list last week.

Last Week in the Courts

On 24 June 2024 Collins Rice J handed down judgment on meaning in Bridgen v Hancock [2024] EWHC 1603 (KB). She determined the Tweet complained of, published on 11 January 2023, held the meaning “An unnamed MP had said something that morning related to vaccination which was baseless, unscientific, dangerous and offensive, including because its character was antisemitic.” She held that the underlined words were a statement of fact but that the remainder of the meaning had been conveyed by way of an expression of opinion. It was agreed the Tweet was defamatory at common law. 5RB and Taylor Hampton Solicitors have more information.

On 25 June 2024, Nicklin J handed down judgment in Harcombe & Anor v Associated Newspapers Ltd & Anor [2024] EWHC 1523 (KB). Dr Malcolm Kendrick and Zoe Harcombe are suing The Mail on Sunday’s publisher – Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) – and its health editor Barney Calman, for libel, over articles in 2019 which they claim described them as “statin deniers” who had caused “grave harm”. A statement from then Health Secretary Matt Hancock was referenced in several paragraphs in the Mail’s article, which the claimants claimed was presented “in a distorted and misleading way” and was not in the public interest. Nicklin J found “the way in which the Hancock statement was used was seriously misleading and gave an entirely false impression of whether Mr Hancock had criticised the three individuals, he had not” [176]. He went on to confirm the reports of Hancock’s statement were not protected by privilege because the references “were not fair or accurate”. The Press Gazette has more information here. Carter Ruck has more information here.

On the same day, there was a hearing in the case of Oliver v Duffy KB-2023-002483.

On 27 June 2024 there was a hearing in the case of Pattinson v Winsor KB-2024-000256.

On 28 June 2024, judgment on the need for a Trial of Preliminary Issues (TPI) on serious harm was handed down in Versi v Husain [2024] EWHC 1672 (KB). It was held that a further TPI on serious harm would go against the overriding objective and potentially add significant time and costs to already lengthy proceedings. If the defendant was confident in his case on serious harm, it could be dealt with dispositively by way of summary judgment without the additional risk of binding a trial judge and muddying the evidential waters that would accompany a TPI on serious harm at this stage [41].

Media Law in Other Jurisdictions

Australia

Northern Territory Labor MP Marion Scrymgour says she has engaged lawyers over a social media post by independent senator Lidia Thorpe that she claims implied she had behaved corruptly. Scrymgour accused Thorpe of using parliament to attack other Aboriginal women she perceived as her political foes, and trying to boost her own First Nations credentials by claiming association with Aboriginal Territorians, whom she had “nothing to do with.” The Sydney Morning Herald has more information here.

A federal court has dismissed a defamation case brought by a group of Australian federal police officers against the former ACT top prosecutor Shane Drumgold. The registrar dismissed the case, which had sought $1.42m in damages, alleging that Drumgold defamed the officers in a written complaint about their handling of the Bruce Lehrmann prosecution. The Guardian has more information here.

New Zealand

Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki is facing defamation action from drag performers CoCo and Erika Flash, whose storytime events the church attempted to stop. Entertainment company Haus of Flash Limited, along with performers Sunita Torrance and Daniel Lockett, said they would file defamation and breach of contract proceedings against Tamaki based on the cancellation of shows they were booked to perform – allegedly due to Tamaki and Destiny Church members. The New Zealand Herald has more information here.

United States

Influencer Logan Paul has filed a defamation lawsuit against Stephen Findeisen, better known as “Coffeezilla” on YouTube, over videos he produced about Paul’s failed CryptoZoo non-fungible token (NFT) project in 2022. Cointelegraph and The Block have more information.

Research and Resources

Next Week in the Courts 

On Monday 1 July 2024, the trial will begin in FKJ v RVT QB-2019-003948 before Linden J. The trial is set to last for 7 days.

On Tuesday 2 July 2024, there will be hearings in Craig Wright v Peter McCormack QB-2019-001430 and Organista v Rodrigues QB-2021-003806

On Wednesday 3 July 2024, there will be a hearing in the defamation case of Aslani v Sobierajska QB-2020-004166.

Reserved Judgments

Dowding v The Character Group PLC 19 and 20 June 2024 (Richard Spearman KC)

Codnor v Thorpe,  17 June 2024 (Richard Spearman KC).

Hawrami v Journalism Development Network Inc and others, 17 June 2024 (Steyn J)

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

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

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).