On Tuesday and Wednesday 6 and 7 May 2025 Nicklin J heard a case management conference in the case of Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon v Associated Newspapers KB-2022-003316 and the associated cases of Hurley v Associated Newspapers, Sir Elton John and David Furnish v Associated Newspapers, Sir Simon Hughes v Associated Newspapers, Sadie Frost Law v Associated Newspapers and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex v Associated Newspapers.

The publisher of the Daily Mail asked the Claimants to disclose any documents relating to payments or “threats” made for evidence in the legal claim against the news organisation. ANL maintain that previous disclosure had shown that “payments were made or offered” to “procure evidence and invoices” but “there is good reason to believe that incentives have been offered or paid by the research team more widely.” Speaking in court, ANL’s legal team argued that this was “buying evidence from a certain perspective” and for “evidence against newspapers”.

During the same hearings, the Claimants made a number of applications including asking for some documents provided by ANL to be unredacted. The Claimant’s argued lawyers for ANL had been “excessive” when redacting documents exchanged between the sides earlier this year and that this “approach to disclosure has shown only a partial picture of the wrongdoing.” The Press Gazette has more information here.  Judgment was reserved.

The Strasbourg Observes blog has an article on the normalisation of systemic violence in protest policing prompted by the recent judgment from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) Fraisse et al. v. France (27 February 2025, nos. 22525/21 and 47626/21). This case arose out of the death of 21-year-old Rémi Fraisse during a demonstration against a dam project in 2014. The case examines not only the circumstances of his death, but the legal and operational framework that allowed a military-grade weapon to be used in a civilian protest – and whether the state fulfilled its obligation to protect the right to life. Read the article here.

Internet and Social Media

The Cyberleagle Blog has a an article analysing the Home Office’s consultation response on a new procedure for authorised police offers to issue takedown notices to online platforms and search engines for specified illegal weapons content. The article notes that the proposed amendments to the Criminal Law and Policing Bill face similar difficulties to those that confronted the Online Safety Act with regard to distinguishing illegal and legal content. Read the full piece here.

Data Privacy and Data Protection

On 7 May 2025, the Data (Access and Use) Bill returned for its Commons Report stage. The HawkTalk blog has an article explaining how the revised wording degrades two Data Protection Principles in Article 5 of the UK_GDPR; namely the Principles dealing with lawfulness and incompatibility.

The IAPP blog has an article exploring the privacy and AI implications of digital clones. Digital clones (lifelike avatars, voice replicas or interactive chatbots) present exciting opportunities for creators to interact with fans, offer one-on-one coaching at scale and gaming. However, the generation and operation of these digital clones presents novel challenges for the companies that host them relating to privacy, rights of publicity and artificial intelligence transparency.

Surveillance

Privacy International has published its findings on its research on period tracking apps, third party data sharing practices and the privacy implications. This research updates a previous investigation in 2019. Read the conclusions and recommendations here. Read the analysis of the study here. They have also published their findings on specific apps: Euki, Stardust, WomanLog, Wocute, Period Tracker by GP Apps, Maya, Period Tracker by Simple Design and Flo.

Events 

On Thursday, 5 June 2025, 9-10.30am: London International Disputes Week 2025. There will be sessions on Managing a data and misinformation crisis: The legal, forensic and PR perspectives and Litigating social media: a defamation labyrinth? Registration link here.

IPSO

There were no rulings from IPSO from the last week.

Statements in Open Court and Apologies

On 7 May 2025 there was a statement in open court in the case of PGMBM Law Ltd v Times Media Ltd.  The Times apologised to class action law firm Pogust Goodhead and agreed to pay damages for a defamatory claim that it was improperly pressuring clients.  There was a report on the Legal Futures website.

New Issued Cases

There was one miscellaneous claim filed on the media and communication list last week.

Last Week in the Courts

As mentioned above, on Tuesday and Wednesday 6 and 7 May 2025 Nicklin J heard a case management conference in the case of Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon v Associated Newspapers KB-2022-003316 and the associated cases of Hurley v Associated Newspapers, Sir Elton John and David Furnish v Associated Newspapers, Sir Simon Hughes v Associated Newspapers, Sadi Frost Law v Associated Newspapers and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex v Associated Newspapers.

On Thursday 8 May 2025, Murray J heard an application in the case of Mahmod v ITV plc KB-2024-0010160.

Media Law in Other Jurisdictions

Australia

Ben Roberts–Smith’s ex-partner has denied she was responsible for leaking a secret recording that up-ended the war veteran’s defamation claim. The Australian has more information here.

Canada

The Privacy Commissioner of Canada has published a survey which revealed that a significant majority of Canadians are concerned about their privacy when using social media, smartphones, artificial intelligence tools, and when engaging in online activities. 41% of survey participants reported that they had stopped doing business with a company that experienced a privacy breach.  At the same time, 62% believe that the federal government respects their privacy rights, while 40% believe that businesses do. Pogo Was Right has more information here.

China

The National Computer Virus Emergency Response Centre of China has discovered two mobile apps in breach of cross-border transfer requirements in accordance with the Cybersecurity Law, the Personal Information Protection Law, the Method for Determining the Acts of Illegal, the Illegal Collection and Use of Personal Information by Apps, and other relevant laws and regulations of China. This is the first time that NCERT announced non-compliance activities related to cross-border transfers of personal information. The Privacy & Information Security Law Blog has more information here.

Europe

The ECtHR has handed down judgment in favour of the applicant in BAYRAMOV v AZERBAIJAN – 45735/21. The case concerned the publication of footage of the applicant by the police following his arrest for drunk driving. In a unanimous decision, the Court held that there had been a violation of the applicant’s Article 8 rights in the circumstance and awarded damages totalling €6,000.00

Ireland

Gerry Adams, the former president of Sinn Féin, entered the witness box for a second week in his defamation case against the BBC. During his testimony in the High Court, Adams argued that the counsel for the British broadcaster, Paul Gallagher SC, was trying to convince the jury he had “no reputation, that my reputation is useless”.  Adams told the court that Gallagher was telling the “good people” of the jury that because he had no reputation, the BBC Northern Ireland programme Spotlight could “say whatever they like about me, and I can have no redress”. The Irish Times covers his witness testimony here.

Kenya

A Kenyan high court has ruled that decentralized identity protocol Worldcoin’s collection of biometric data violated the country’s data protection laws. The court has now ordered the firm to permanently delete all biometric data it has collected within seven days of the ruling. Mariblock has more information here.

United States

Universal Music Group (UGM) has motioned to dismiss Drake’s updated defamation lawsuit over the release of Kendrick Lemar’s “Not Like Us”, writing that the rapper’s allegations against the music giant “are no more than Drake’s attempt to save face for his unsuccessful rap battle with Lamar.” The motion comes weeks after Drake filed an amended complaint in the case against his own record company, alleging that Lamar’s Super Bowl performance — and Lamar omitting the word “pedophile” during “Not Like Us” — affirmed his claim that the song’s lyrics were defamatory. The Hollywood reporter has more information here.

Apple users can now apply to claim their share of a $95 million cash pay-out to settle a class action case alleging Siri eavesdropping. The deadline for applications for the Siri pay-out is 2 July 2025. The class action lawsuit alleged that Apple was infringing its users’ privacy by capturing Siri conversations without their knowledge or consent and sharing this with advertisers. Forbes has more information here.

Google agreed to pay nearly $1.4 billion to the state of Texas to settle allegations of violating the data privacy rights of state residents. The suit against Google was brought in 2022 for allegedly unlawfully tracking and collecting the private data of users. The Attorney General said the settlement, which covers allegations in two separate lawsuits against the search engine and app giant, dwarfed all past settlements by other states with Google for similar data privacy violations. Google’s settlement comes nearly 10 months after the Attorney General obtained a $1.4 billion settlement for Texas from Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to resolve claims of unauthorized use of biometric data by users of those popular social media platforms. CNBC has more information here.

Research and Resources

Next Week in the Courts 

We are not aware of any media law cases listed this week. [Update}

On Wednesday 14 May 2025 there will be a hearing in the case of Ahmadi v Guardian Media plc KB-2024-003591.

On Thursday 15 May 2025, there will be a hearing in the case of Rowland v Haringey Council.

Reserved Judgments

Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon v Associated Newspapers, 6 and 7 May 2025 (Nicklin J).

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)