This is the last day of the short Easter legal vacation. The Easter Legal term will begin tomorrow, 29 April 2025, and will run until Friday 23 May 2025.

On Monday 14 April 2025 Collins Rice J found that there were “compelling reasons for further investigation at trial” when handing down judgment in Bridgen v Hancock [2025] EWHC 926 (KB). She found that all relevant evidence to determine whether or not Mr Hancock “genuinely espoused the opinion he expressed” in the post was not available. Whether Mr Bridgen will ultimately succeed on his pleaded case is likely to depend on a full examination of the evidence both ways, including how Mr Hancock explains his opinion in due course, if he chooses to do so, or the inferences to be drawn if he does not. There was not enough evidence at this stage to conclude that Mr Bridgen’s prospects of success are ‘unreal’ [96]. The BBC and Thomson Reuters have more information.

Graham Smith has published his submission to the Ministry of Justice’s Call for Evidence on computer evidence in criminal proceedings. Read his key takeaways here.

On Sunday 27 April 2025, the first printed edition of The Observer was published under Tortoise Media ownership. This follows their digital launch on Friday 25 April 2025. The sight will publish 8 – 12 stories a day; breaking news and daily updates are not the priority for the site but it will still be fighting to break scoops and publish agenda-setting investigations. Read the plans for the future of the publication with the new co-CEO, digital editor and creative director of The Observer under Tortoise with The Press Gazette here. The Guardian has information on the Tortoise takeover here.

Jingrong Tong, a senior lecturer in Media and Information Studies at the University of Sheffield, has warned that decreased compliance with Freedom of Information (FOI) rules had resulted in “growing government secrecy”. Tong interviewed 31 journalists from around the UK for the study, which was published in the academic journal Journalism Practice. The Press Gazette has more information here.

Events

Tuesday, 20 April 2025, 12.30pm.  Online Panel discussion of Dr Irini Katsirea’s book, Press Freedom and Regulation in a Digital Era: A Comparative Study (2024).  Registration link here.

Internet and Social Media

The IAPP blog has an article analysing the global governance challenges of deepfake technology.

On 22 April 2025, Google announced that it will continue to offer third-party cookies in its Chrome browser and will not roll out a new standalone prompt for third-party cookie preferences. Chrome users must continue to make third-party cookie choices through Chrome’s existing Privacy and Security Settings. This development follows Google’s July 2024 announcement that it was scrapping its previously-declared plan to phase out the use of third-party cookies in its Chrome browser.

The Government’s proposal to allow AI companies to automatically train their models on online content unless the rightsholder specifically opts out has been described as “unworkable”. The Government is currently analysing responses to the consultation, which closed in February. It is assessing four proposed options for UK copyright in the AI era: making no change to existing law, beefing up creator copyright protections, giving AI companies broad copyright exemptions or the opt-out model. The last option is the one currently preferred by the Government – but opposed by publishers, the creative industries and even some of the leading AI companies. The Press Gazette has more information here. The Media Law Podcast had an episode on the AI and copyright consultation with consultation-respondent Dr Patrick Goold.

The Press Gazette has an article advocating for reform of the laws around contempt of court in order to align it with the digital age.

Data Privacy and Data Protection

The Secretary of State for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has released the Cyber security and resilience policy statement to address some of the questions around the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which was announced in the Kings Speech in July 2024. The policy statement gives some indication as to how the CS&R Bill will compare to its European counterpart, the NIS2 directive. Currently, cyber regulation in the UK is heavily reliant on the 2018 transposition of the NIS1 Directive (in the form of the NIS Regulations 2018), with a far narrower scope applying to critical infrastructure and Digital Service Providers only. Given the substantial progress in NIS2 implementation across Europe, the appetite for UK cyber security reform continues to grow. DLA Piper has an article on what the policy statement says about the Bill and its alignment with NIS2.

Surveillance

The security of thousands of employees and their parent companies is at risk after real-time images of their computers were leaked by an employee surveillance app. Cybernews reported that over 21 million screenshots from WorkComposer, which works with over 200,000 companies worldwide, were discovered in an unsecured Amazon S3 bucket. WorkComposer captures screenshots of an employee’s computer every 3 to 5 minutes, meaning the leaked images potentially included sensitive content like internal communications, login information or an employee’s personal information that could leave them vulnerable to identity theft, scams and more.

Newspapers Journalism and Regulation

On 22 April 2025, the Daily Mail published an article on the new “anti-racism commitment” published by the National Police Chief’s Council and the College of Policing professional body. The Daily Mail’s reporting on this 5-page report’s contents has led to a storm of racially aggravated messages online. Hacked Off has accused the Daily Mail of misleading reporting, further information here.

The Mail is facing criticism from Hacked Off for its reporting on the White Lotus actress Aimee Lou Wood’s teeth. Wood’s treatment reveals the dichotomy women in the public eye face, given the paper’s unhealthy obsession with the alterations, or ‘tweakments’ they believe should, or should not have, to rectify their faces and bodies.

Byline Times has announced that they have joined Impress, the UK’s only independent press regulator. In doing so, they have become the first national newspaper to voluntarily sign up to truly independent regulation, joining over 200 other publications that have already made the move.

IPSO

Statements in Open Court and Apologies

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

New Issued Cases

There were two defamation claims and one data protection claim filed on the media and communications list in the last week.

Last Week in the Courts

As above, on Monday 14 April 2025 Collins Rice J handed down judgment in the case of Bridgen v Hancock, (heard 12 March 2025).

On the same day, judgment was delivered in the interim injunction applications for the privacy and harassment case of HXZ v NMX [2025] EWHC 916 (KB). Aidan Eardley KC found for the claimant on all issues; the final hearing would be held in private and anonymity be preserved; the existing injunction would not be discharged and would continue; the Defendant should be ordered to destroy/deliver up the naked images of the Claimant that she holds; the Defendant was ordered to delete four of the five social media posts complained of; there would be limited restrictions on access to the Court file by way of application on notice of the parties; and time for service of the Particulars of Claim was briefly extended.

Also on the same day, there was a decision dismissing the appeal against an order for costs in Spanakis v Schillings International LLP [2025] EWHC 873 (KB).

On 16 April 2025, judgment was delivered by the Supreme Court in Abbasi and another v Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust [2025] UKSC 15. The judgment gives guidance on injunctions made to protect the identity of hospital staff involved in end of life care of children. The judgment held that the court has inherent powers, under the ‘parens patriae’ jurisdiction, to make an injunction to protect the child and the proceedings. Protecting the child while still alive would also often involve ensuring that the clinicians caring for the child were not the subject of harassment or abuse, because that might compromise the care of the child or the ability of the hospital to fulfil its own duties to care for other children. The Health Trust which brought the application could at this stage apply under the parens patriae jurisdiction for protective orders to hold the position whilst the end of life care was given, and the court could leave a buffer period after death to enable clinicians to make their own applications after death if they still needed protection. By that stage it was no longer good enough for the trust to make an application on behalf of the clinicians, and the parens patriae jurisdiction was unavailable, so the clinicians would have to apply on some other basis such as privacy, harassment or defamation. Clinicians had not done so in the present case and the appeal had been brought by the trusts. To enable clinicians to make their own application in similar circumstances in the future, they should be notified if the order was to lapse or if anyone applied to discharge it. Once a child has passed away there is likely to be a drop in the risk of harassment or abuse, but the importance of the parents’ right to tell their story would continue to be high. The passage of time was therefore really important – an injunction that was justified during the life of the child might not be justified after the child had died, and the more time that passed the less likely it would be that an order would be necessary [136]. Read the Press Summary here. Read the Transparency Project’s analysis here.

Media Law in Other Jurisdictions

Australia

Ben Roberts-Smith’s hopes of reopening his failed defamation case have suffered a setback after the court threw out the disgraced war veteran’s demands for Nine newspapers to hand over documents. The Australian has more information here.

A serving Queensland police officer who engaged in “a pattern of predatory sexual conduct” against three junior female colleagues has won a permanent order protecting his identity. The Guardian has more information here.

Canada

Canada’s Media Ecosystem Observatory has found a growing number of Facebook ads impersonating legitimate news sources were promoting disinformation and fraudulent investment schemes. The report comes a year after major social media companies like Meta withdrew news services from their platforms after the country introduced payment schemes which would require platforms to pay news organisations for content. Media researchers found more than half of Canadians still say they get political news from Facebook, despite the platform’s ban on news articles from reputable outlets. The Guardian has more information here.

China

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has released an important Q&A on cross-border data transfer requirements and policies, providing clarification on a number of issues of concern to companies in China. DLA Piper sets out the key points.

United States

The Cyberlaw Clinic filed an amicus brief before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in Commonwealth v Rodriguez (SJC-13727). The Clinic represented the Innocence Project, the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law, and independent researcher Dr Isadora Borges Monroy. The brief supports defendant-appellee Nathaniel Rodriguez, who objects to the Lowell Police Department’s use of racially-targeted police investigatory techniques on social media platforms. Building on last year’s filing in Commonwealth v Dilworth, amici highlight the Equal Protection concerns raised by social media surveillance and underscore its disproportionate impact on minority communities.

On 22 April 2025, Sarah Palin lost her retrial of her defamation lawsuit against the New York Times. She lost her first trial against the newspaper in 2022 and the legal basis of Palin’s civil claim – that an incorrect editorial unlawfully smeared her – remained the same. The retrial was granted because of procedural errors rather than factual questions. The US second circuit court of appeals revamped Palin’s case in 2024, having determined that Judge Jed Rakoff wrongly intruded on jurors’ decision-making. The Guardian has more information here and here.

Research and Resources

Next Week in the Courts 

We are not aware of any cases listed for hearing this week in the Media and Communications List

Reserved Judgments

Clarke v Guardian News and Media, 4 March – 4 April and 11 April 2025 (Steyn J).

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