Parliament has passed the proposed Data (Use and Access) Bill, which reforms the existing UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations. The passage, which now only needs Royal Assent, follows a month-long ping pong between the House of Commons and House of Lords.

The main issue in this latest round of debate involved artificial intelligence and copyright, and calls from the House of Lords to include transparency obligations. Several high-profile UK musicians — including Elton John, Paul McCartney and Dua Lipa — had weighed in on the debate, calling for stronger copyright protections. The House of Commons pushed back on the provision arguing that such requirements would be handled in another AI-based bill. The BBC, UKTN, IAPP, Privacy and Information Law Blog and WiredGov have more information.

The UK Constitutional Law blog has an article on the Court of Appeal’s decision to refuse an application for judicial review brought by Tortoise Media in Tortoise Media Ltd v Conservative Party and Unionist Party [2025] EWCA Civ 673, handed down on 23 May 2025. The article argues that Tortoise Media have an Article 10 ECHR right to the information they sought. The Court of Appeal’s reasoning that political parties “in a free and pluralistic society” should be permitted to adopt their own rules without undue interference by the state [50] should be understood as the logical correlate of Tortoise’s claim. The article argues that, as parties in the UK are free to organise their own affairs, within the limits of equality, anti-terrorism and other applicable laws, transparency about how internal party processes work is an essential component of this political system’s effective functioning. That transparency is all that Tortoise Media was asking for. Their requests are consistent with both common and Convention law, and the public had a right to the answers to Tortoise Media’s questions.

Internet and Social Media

A reported shift toward artificial intelligence automation in Meta’s risk assessment program sparked questions around trickledown impacts on the privacy and digital responsibility profession. According to Meta, the planned changes have nothing to do with replacing human reviews and focus more on building out systems to handle the growing digital governance ecosystem. IAPP has more information here.

Data Privacy and Data Protection

The Mishcon de Reya Data Matters blog has an article on the implications for digital marketing and fundraising campaigns in the charity sector when the Data (Use and Access) Bill (mentioned above) passes. The bill will amend direct electronic marketing laws to allow charities to send marketing emails to individual supporters, even when they haven’t specifically consented to receive them. The article looks at whether the changes means charities will able to send unsolicited fundraising emails.

The IAPP blog has an article examining whether inferred insecurity data about one’s physical appearance — facial asymmetry, acne, aging, weight or other aesthetic traits — can be classified and regulated as sensitive personal data.

The National Law Review has an article examining whether synthetic data sets are really the solution to privacy that its supporters suggest. The article argues that advances in re-identification techniques, shifting societal expectations about data ethics and evolving statutes and regulatory enforcement means synthetic data no longer falls as neatly outside privacy laws and related obligations.

Surveillance

Researchers have revealed that two European journalists had their iPhones hacked with spyware made by Israeli surveillance service Paragon. Apple says it has fixed the bug that was used to hack their phones. TechCrunch has more information here.

Art, Music and Copyright

Legal action is being brought by Getty Images against Stability AI over alleged copyright infringement over the use of photographs to train AI models. The visual content company, based in the United States, is suing Stability AI Limited in London, alleging that it scraped millions of images from Getty’s websites without consent to unlawfully train its deep learning AI model Stable Diffusion. Getty claims this infringes copyright and that the works created by Stable Diffusion, which can generate synthetic images in response to commands entered by users, are also in breach of copyright laws. Stability AI is opposing the claim, which it told the court was “an overt threat” to its business. The Press Gazette has more information here. IPKat also covers the claim in three parts here and here and here.

Events 

On 1 July 2025, The Press Justice Project will bring together leading legal practitioners, reputational experts and sporting heroes for a half-day conference event to explore the challenges facing sportspeople and their representatives in dealing with media intrusion and inaccuracy. Inforrm had a post with more information here.

IPSO

Statements in Open Court and Apologies

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

New Issued Cases

There were no new cases filed on the media and communications list last week.

Last Week in the Courts

On 9 June 2025, judgment was handed down by Swift J in Vince v Associated Newspapers Ltd [2025] EWHC 1411 (KB). The focus of the claim was the juxtaposition in the Mail+ and Daily Mail article of the pictures of Mr Vince, and the headlines “Labour repays £100,000 to sex pest donor” and “Labour repays £100,000 to ‘sex harassment’ donor'”, which referred to Labour donor Mr Davide Serra. Associated Newspapers accepted that the decision to put the photographs and the headline side by side and the subsequent publication of information involved the processing of personal data concerning Mr Vince. Mr Vince contends that the publication of the headline next to the photographs of him suggested that he had been accused of sexual harassment and was therefore unfair for the purposes of article 5 of the UKGDPR. Associated News’s application for strike out was allowed as this claim meant Associated News would have to defend publication of the article for a second time following an earlier defamation claim. The course taken by Mr Vince was found to be unnecessary and oppressive to Associated Newspapers [29]. The Press Gazette and BBC cover the ruling.

On the same day Johnson J heard the pre-trial review  in the libel case of Hegab (“Hijab”) v The Spectator (1828) Ltd and another KB-2023-003636.

On 10 June 2025 there was a 1 day strike out and summary judgment hearing the case of QRT v JBE QB-2022-000825.  There was also a hearing in the case of Elphicke v Times Media Limited KA-2024-000231.

On 11 June 2025 there were hearings in the cases of Candey Ltd v Mann KB-2024-002126 and BGR v Persons Unknown KB-2025-001803.

On 12 June 2025, judgment was handed down by Nicklin J in Cardiff City Football Club Ltd v McKay & Ors [2025] EWHC 1439.  The Defendants’ attempt to rely upon without prejudice communications between the parties was refused. The Claimants had brought a contempt application alleging that the Defendants have failed to comply with an order requiring them to give disclosure of certain categories of documents. The Defendants did not, however, demonstrate any unambiguous impropriety. The negotiations between the parties were unremarkable. Both sides were represented throughout by experienced legal advisors and there was no complaint at the time from the Defendants suggesting that the Claimant was using the pending Contempt Application to pressure them into an unfavourable settlement [54]. Consequently, the without prejudice communications remain protected and are inadmissible as evidence in the Defendants’ application to strike out the Contempt Application as an abuse of process.

On the same day there was a 1-day hearing in the case of Wei and others v Long and others KB-2023-003483.

On Friday 13 June 2025 there were return date hearings in the cases of HZT -v-XRT KB-2025-001583 and Emerging Media Ventures Limited and another v Kundra KB-2025-001918 and a PTR in the case of Naseer v Raja QB-2022-002648.

Media Law in Other Jurisdictions

Canada

Digital regulators are attempting to thread the needle between meaningful safeguards for children’s online safety and giving minors freedom within their online presence. The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario is among the global enforcers putting a priority on finding that equilibrium. The IAPP blog has more information on Canada’s approach to striking that balance here.

Ireland

The BBC will not appeal Gerry Adams’s defamation victory against the organisation from last month. Mr Adams took the BBC to court over a 2016 episode of its Spotlight programme, and an accompanying online story, that he said defamed him by alleging he sanctioned the killing of former Sinn Féin official Denis Donaldson, in which he denies any involvement. Judgment found in his favour and awarded him €100,000 after determining that was the meaning of words included in the programme and article. The Irish Times has more information here.

Italy

Italy’s data protection authority, the Garante, reaffirmed its ban on the generative artificial intelligence chatbot Replika, citing persistent violations of the EU General Data Protection Regulation and ongoing risks to minors and vulnerable users.

Italy has terminated its contracts with Israeli spyware company Paragon after revelations that the surveillance technology was used against critics of the government – including journalists and migrant rescue workers – prompted political uproar and calls for a full investigation. Aljazeera has more information here.

United States

Customs and Border Protection is flying surveillance drones over the Los Angeles protests. In a statement to 404 Media, which first reported the presence of the drones, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said the drones were deployed to support “our federal law enforcement partners in the Greater Los Angeles area, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with aerial support of their operations”. Ice conducts raids and arrests, activity that has ramped up under the Trump administration’s and against which protesters in Los Angeles have been demonstrating. The Guardian has more information here.

New York state lawmakers passed a bill last week that aims to prevent frontier AI models from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic from contributing to disaster scenarios, including the death or injury of more than 100 people, or more than $1 billion in damages. The passage of the RAISE Act represents a milestone in the AI safety movement. Safety advocates including Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton and AI research pioneer Yoshua Bengio have championed the RAISE Act. Should it become law, the bill would establish America’s first set of legally mandated transparency standards for frontier AI labs. TechCrunch has more information here.

Research and Resources

Next Week in the Courts 

On Monday 16 June 2025 there is a return date for BTJ & ORS v Persons Unknown KB-2025-001984.

On Tuesday 17 June 2025 there will be an application for renewal in Wilson v Stroud Green Housing Co-operative Ltd KA-2024-000109.

On Wednesday 18 June 2025 there will be a pre-trial review in Sayed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari v Syed Tauqeer Bukhari QB-2020-001139.

On the same day, the defendant will be making an application for a general civil restraint order in Atole Timothy Enaholo v Claims Governance Totally PLC and another QB-2022-001025.

On Friday 20 June 2025, there will be applications in Dorban and another v Roper KB-2024-001960 and IT Services UK Limited v Rippon KB-2024-002843. On the same day there is the return date for AMV v TDX KB-2025-001902.

Reserved Judgments

Kul and Ors v DWF Law LLP – 4 and 5 June 2025 (Eady J).

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).