This is the last Weekly Round Up of 2024. The Michaelmas term finished on Friday 20 December 2024. The Hilary Term will begin on Monday 13 January 2025. From everyone at Inforrm, I wish you a very Merry Christmas.

The Court of Appeal has granted an application made by 11 media organisations for the right to challenge a decision to ban the naming of the judges involved in the family court proceedings of murdered girl Sara Sharif. On 19 December 2024, the Williams J handed down judgment in Tickle & Ors v Surrey County Council & Ors [2024] EWHC 3330 (Fam) in the High Court. In that judgment, Williams J ruled that the press could not name the judges because the Article 10 rights are outweighed by the Article 8 rights of the judges and would make naming them a disproportionate interference with such rights [96]. The Court of Appeal has, however, granted permission to appeal on the grounds that the arguments in favour of stripping the judges of their anonymity have a “real prospect of success” and the case “raises questions that are of considerable public importance”. The BBC, Press Gazette, Guardian, A Lawyer Writes and Law Society Gazette have more information.

Journalists and legal bloggers will be allowed to report on family court cases across England and Wales in 2025. Transparency will no longer be restricted to pilot courts and will be permanent. Journalists will be able to request a transparency order in all family courts to allow them to report what they see and hear, access key documents and speak to families – provided they keep them anonymous. The Transparency Project and BBC have more information.

A solicitor who acted for former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, has been fined £50,000 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal and ordered to pay £260,000 costs after he was found to have misused a ‘without prejudice’ heading in an email.  The Tribunal found that the case was not an instance of a SLAPP.  Its reasons will be given later.

Internet and Social Media

Google has announced that from 16 February 2025 it will no longer prohibit organisations that use its advertising products from employing digital fingerprinting techniques. Mashable has more information here. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has called this policy shift “irresponsible.” The ICO warned the practice will undermine consumers’ control and choice over how their data is collected and used, and Google’s plan to allow its deployment departs from its “expectation of a privacy-driven internet”. The Guardian has more information here.

Data Privacy and Data Protection

As 2024 comes to a close, the ICO has reflected on “a successful year of effecting change to protect people’s information rights and guide organisations to continually improve to meet their legal obligations.” Read the ICO’s review of 2024 here.

Over a quarter (27%) of UK adults are planning to treat themselves to a new device this Christmas. However, the latest poll from the ICO found that the average Brit has three unused devices at home, and three in ten UK adults (29%) do not know how to wipe their personal information from an old device or tech product. More than two-thirds of UK adults (71%) agree that erasing your personal information is important, however almost one quarter (24%) believe that it is too difficult.

The HawkTalk blog has published the second instalment of its examination of the Data (Use and Access) Bill (DUAB). This article deals with the powers in the DUAB that give Ministers the ability to sweep aside key elements of the UK_GDPR that protects data subjects from function creep in the public sector.

Surveillance

On 17 December 2024, The Investigatory Powers Tribunal handed down judgment in McCaffrey and Birney v Police Service of Norther Ireland and Others [2024] UKIPTrib 8 [pdf]. The Tribunal ruled that the police surveillance operation deployed against journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney was unlawful. Chair of the Tribunal Lord Justice Singh awarded damages of £4,000 each to the documentary makers. The ruling quashed the decision made by former Police Service of Northern Ireland chief constable Sir George Hamilton to approve the Directed Surveillance Authorisation in an investigation into the leaking of a confidential document that appeared in their documentary on a Troubles massacre. Read the Press Summary here. The BBC, Guardian and Press Gazette have more information.

Newspapers Journalism and Regulation

Hacked Off has an article criticising the Information Commissioner’s Office for failing to hold the media to account. The article looks at the ICO’s first statutory review of journalism’s compliance with data protection laws under the framework established by the Data Protection Act 2018, which was supposed to be the first “robust and comprehensive” review of journalism’s compliance with data protection law and good practice. Hacked Off explains how this recent report again shows that lessons of the Leveson Inquiry have not been learned.

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 no new claims filed on the Media and Communications list last week.

Last Week in the Courts

On 17 December 2024, judgment was handed down by Mr Justice Picken in R (On the Application Of Serious Fraud Office) v Cook & Anor [2024] EWCR 8. Spotlight on Corruption’s application to publish the transcripts relating to a corruption trial which took place between November 2023 and March 2024 was successful. Spotlight on Corruption stated aim was to enable the public better to understand these proceedings by reference to the material that was before the Court at trial.

On the same day Kerr J handed down judgment in the case of Enaholo v Totally plc [2024] EWHC 3249 (KB).  The claim for negligence and breach of confidence was dismissed.

, As mentioned above, on the same day the Investigatory Powers Tribunal handed judgment in McCaffrey and Birney v Police Service of Norther Ireland and Others [2024] UKIPTrib 8 [pdf].

On 20 December 2024, judgment was handed down by Deputy High Court Judge Alegre in Adams v Amazon Digital UK Ltd [2024] EWHC 3338 (KB). The claim was brought by mother of boxer and Olympic gold medal winner Nicola Adams over the film Lioness: The Nicola Adams Story, who claimed the film libelled her by referring to offensive messages she had sent, and misused her private information, including by referring to domestic violence within her home. Amazon’s application for summary judgment was granted.  The Judge found that there was no real prospect Ms Adams (Mother) overcoming defences of truth and honest opinion [26], or of succeeding in her privacy claim, which appeared to be no more than an addendum to the failed defamation claim [46]. In respect of the latter, the court focused on the extent to which the information complained of was already in the public domain, and on the importance of Ms Nicola Adams’ right to tell her own life story.

Media Law in Other Jurisdictions

Australia

Australia’s Olympic break dancer Rachael “Raygun” Gunn has come to an agreement with comedian Steph Broadbridge after she shut down Broadbridge’s Raygun: The Musical earlier in December. The breaker said the show could proceed with a different name and poster. Gunn had not been part of the creation of the show but after it was announced she claims that many had assumed that she had developed it, and that “damaged many relationships, both personal and professional.” The Guardian has more information here.

Europe

The European Data Protection Board released its anticipated opinion regarding the lawful use of personal data for the development and deployment of artificial intelligence models. The board’s deliberations culminated in recommendations that leave discretion to EU data protection authorities’ determinations around lawful data use while clarifying how legitimate interest fits into AI training. IAPP has more information here.

Ireland

On 17 December 2024, the Irish Data Protection Commission announced that it had concluded two inquiries initiated following a personal data breach reported in 2018 affecting Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, resulting in the DPC issuing multiple administrative fines totalling €251 million and several reprimands. The Privacy and Information Security Law Blog has more information here.

On 19 December 2024, judgment was handed down by the Court of Appeal in Campion & Ors v South Tipperary County Council [2024] IECA 301. The appeal has been live since 2007 and included, amongst other causes of action, damages for defamation and malicious falsehood. As a result of the lack of progress on the part of the claimants, the High Court struck out the proceedings for inordinate and inexcusable delay.  The claimant’s appeal against that decision was allowed; the general prejudice as described in the affidavit evidence of the County Council was not enough to justify the striking out of these proceedings [35].

Italy

Garante, (Italy’s data protector) has fined ChatGPT’s OpenAI for processing users’ personal information “to train ChatGPT without having an adequate legal basis and violated the principle of transparency and the related information obligations towards users.” The fine is €15 million. In addition to the fine, OpenAI will have to comply with a six-month information campaign.

Netherlands

The Dutch Data Protection Authority has imposed a fine of €4.75 million on the streaming service Netflix for not giving customers sufficient information about what the company does with their personal data between 2018 and 2020. Netflix has since updated its privacy statement and improved its information provision.

United States

Schools are employing dubious AI-powered software to accuse teenagers of wanting to harm themselves and sending the police to their homes as a result — with often chaotic and traumatic results. The New York Times reports that software is being installed on high school students’ school-issued devices tracks every word they type. An algorithm then analyzes the language for evidence of teenagers wanting to harm themselves.

Research and Resources

Next Week in the Courts 

The legal term ended on 20 December 2024 and will resume on 13 January 2024.

Reserved Judgments

Ashley v The Commissioners for His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, heard 2 and 3 December 2024 (Heather Williams J)

Smith & Jackson v Surridge, heard 25 November – 3 December 2024 (Saini J)

Ashley v The Commissioners for His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, heard 2-3 December 2024 (Heather Williams J)

Miller v Peake, heard 18 to 20 November 2024 (HHJ Parkes KC)

RTM v Bonne Terre Limited and another, heard 11 to 15 November 2024 (Collins Rice J)

Vince v Bailey, heard 11-12 November 2024 (Pepperall J)

Vince v Tice and Vince v Staines heard 11 November 2024 (Pepperall J)

Secretary of State for Education v Marples, 4 November 2024, (Sir Peter Lane)

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)

Colette Allen is the host of Newscast on Dr Thomas Bennett and Professor Paul Wragg’s The Media Law Podcast (@MediaLawPodcast).