BBC correspondent Mark Lowen was arrested and deported from Turkey on Wednesday 26 March 2025, branded as a “threat to public order”, for reporting on the country’s anti-government protests against the arrest of the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu.

BBC News CEO Deborah Turness called the deportation “extremely troubling” and said the broadcaster would raise the issue with Turkish authorities. Reuters, The Guardian, Sky News and the BBC have more information.

The Transparency Project has an article on open justice in the family court, prompted by a successful application to appeal a decision to grant the BBC access to certain documents relating to private fostering proceedings. The family involved objected to this disclosure and have won the right to appeal to the Court of Appeal.

The US Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by former casino owner and Trump donor Steve Wynn in which he sought to overturn the decision in New York Times v Sullivan.  The Reuters Institute has an article entitled “How billionaires and powerful law firms are working to restrict libel protections and silence the press in Trump’s America”

Internet and Social Media

A woman whose intimate images were posted online without her knowledge or consent has asked Ofcom to use its new powers under the Online Safety Act to save herself and others from further violation. The woman is asking Ofcom to investigate the site, to hold it to account for the dissemination of her intimate pictures without her consent and to prevent the images of her and other women and girls being shared any further. Mishcon de Reya has more information here.

Data Privacy and Data Protection

The Information Commissioner’s Office has released a statement in relation to ancestry service 23andMe’s recent  application for bankruptcy in the US and pending sale. The ICO has confirmed that they are monitoring the situation closely and are in contact with the company. As a matter of UK law, the protections and restrictions of the UK GDPR continue to apply and 23andMe remains under an obligation to protect the personal information of its customers. The Washington Post has an article warning existing customers to delete their data in light of the bankruptcy application.

Surveillance

Privacy International has an article exploring the surveillance implications of cuts to Global Humanitarian and Aid programmes. The article argues that cuts open the door for ‘aid’ programmes that actually expand surveillance and undermine human rights across the world.

Prompted by the mistaken addition of journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to a signal chat where senior US Government officials were discussing the United States’ military strikes in Yemen, Privacy International has an article on so called ‘Ghost Protocol.’ The article explains how governments have been trying to gain access to encrypted private conversations for decades, most recently demonstrated by the UK Government’s use of secret orders to gain access to Apple’s end-to-end encrypted iCloud services.

Art, Music and Copyright

The Copyright Licensing Agency has announced that, from 1 May 2025, new and renewed licences for corporate and public sector organisations will cover “workplace generative AI use.” This will allow employees to use copyright protected content as prompts when using GenAI tools. However, the surrounding terms and conditions impose a number of constraints on the permissions granted. This is particularly the case in relation to restrictions and limitations on the use of outputs produced as a result of using licensed works as prompts, which may serve to limit the effectiveness of the permissions granted. Mishcon de Reya has more information here.

Newspapers Journalism and Regulation

UK-based agency Newsflare has withdrawn a number of fake videos it distributed which appear to have been generated using AI but were not so labelled. Newsflare claims to be home to the largest collection of rights-cleared and fully licensable user-generated video in the world. It works as a go-between, selling content to publishers on behalf of journalists and other creators and then taking a commission. The platform’s policy is that all AI content is clearly labelled. The Press Gazette has more information here.

IPSO

Statements in Open Court and Apologies

On 28 March 2025, a statement was made in open court before Collins Rice J in settlement of the libel claim brought by Dale Vince against Paul Staines, the founder, owner, and editor of the political blog Guido Fawkes. On 13 and 14 March 2024, Mr Staines published articles on his Guido Fawkes blog falsely accusing Mr Vince of having expressed support for Hamas during a Times Radio interview.  Mr Staines called for the donations Mr Vince had made to the Labour Party to be returned.  He published similar allegations on social media. The statement reported that Mr Staines had agreed to pay Mr Vince damages and legal costs, Vince v Stains KB-2024-001676 [pdf]. As part of the settlement, Mr Staines has removed the offending content from the world wide web and provided an undertaking to the court not to repeat the allegations. Brett Wilson LLP has more information here.

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

The trial of the defamation and data protection case of Clarke v Guardian QB-2022-001397 continued before Steyn J.

On Wednesday 26 March 2025, there was a hearing in the case of BPP Holdings Limited and others v Blakey KB-2024-001080.

On Friday 28 March 2025, there was a hearing in HCRG Care Limited v Persons Unknown KB-2025-000736 and, as mentioned above, a statement read out in settlement of Vince v Staines KB-2024-001676.

Media Law in Other Jurisdictions

Australia

Disgraced war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith has lodged a bid to appeal the defamation judgment entered against him on the basis that he was not afforded a fair process. The Sydney Morning Herald has more information here.

Taylor Auerbach is suing his former employer Seven over comments the network allegedly made about him last year amid a defamation claim in which the former producer gave evidence about how Spotlight secured an interview with Bruce Lehrmann. The Guardian has more information here.

Adam Whittington, a “child recovery agent” who was involved in the 60 Minutes abduction scandal in Lebanon, has been ordered by the New South Wales supreme court to pay Jasmin Newman $160,000 in damages and $147,796 in costs after it found he defamed her in a series of online posts dating back to 2019. The Guardian has more information here.

China

The Cyberspace Administration of China and the Ministry of Public Security has jointly released the Security Management Measures for the Application of Facial Recognition Technology, which will become effective on 1 June 2025.  The Privacy and Information Security Law Blog has a summary of the scope and certain of the key requirements of the Measures here.

European Union

Max Schrems has suggested that he may not need to mount another legal challenge around lawful EU-US data flows given the US political developments impacting the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. In a discussion with TeachPrivacy CEO Daniel Solove, Schrems indicated the changes to US independent agencies tasked with overseeing core aspects of the DPF will ultimately be enough for the European Commission to “basically pause the application of this deal or stop the deal on its own” before another case goes before the Court of Justice of the European Union. The prior EU-US data transfer agreements, the EU-US Safe Harbour Framework and the EU-US Privacy Shield, were invalidated through CJEU decisions spurred by Schrems’ complaints. The IAPP blog has more information here.

Turkey

As mentioned above, the Turkish government are arresting and deporting journalists covering the country’s largest anti-government protests in years. 11 Turkish journalists have been detained across the country.

United States

A US court has dismissed a lawsuit brought against journalism credibility rating organisation NewsGuard, ruling that the company’s reviews are protected expressions of opinion. Consortium News alleged that it had been defamed by a NewsGuard review which declared it was “anti-US” and “publishes false information”. NewsGuard publishes periodic reviews of news sites that assess whether publications meet its standards for certain broadly accepted journalistic practices. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla said Consortium News had not shown that NewsGuard had made any false statements or that its statements had been made with “actual malice”, i.e. a disregard for the truth. The Press Gazette has more information here.

On 25 March 2025, Virginia Governor Glen Youngkin vetoed the High-Risk Artificial Intelligence Developer and Deployer Act, which had been passed by the Virginia legislature. The Act would have imposed accountability and transparency requirements with respect to the development and deployment of “high-risk” AI systems. The Governor’s reasons related to the Act’s “rigid framework” which he felt failed “to account for the rapidly evolving and fast-moving nature of the AI industry and puts an especially onerous burden on smaller firms and startups that lack large legal compliance departments.” The Governor also noted that Virginia’s existing laws “protect consumers and place responsibilities on companies relating to discriminatory practices, privacy, data use, libel, and more,” and that an executive order issued by the Governor’s Administration had “establish[ed] safeguards and oversight for AI use, and assembl[ed] a highly skilled task force comprised of industry leading experts to work closely with [the] Administration on key AI governance issues.” IAPP and The Privacy and Information Security Law Blog have more information.

Research and Resources

Next Week in the Courts 

The trial of the defamation and data protection case of Clarke v Guardian QB-2022-001397 will enter its fifth week before Steyn J.

On Monday 31 March 2025, there will be a costs appeal in Vardy v Rooney KA-2024-000200 before Cavanagh J and an assessor.

On the same day there will be a preliminary issues trial before Yip J in  Aurang Zeeb v Ali KB-2023-003544 and and application in Ness v Miller KB-2025-000232 before Aidan Eardley KC.

On Wednesday 2 April 2025, there will be a hearing in Scalora v Clarion Housing Associated KB-2023-003931.

On Thursday 3 April 2025, there will be hearings in HXZ v NMX and Currie v Soho Theatre Company KB-2024-002293.

On Friday 4 April, there will be a hearing in Warren v Eubank Junior KB-2024-004317.

Reserved Judgments

Bridgen v Hancock, 12 March 2024 (Collins Rice J)

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