On Tuesday 27 January 2026, the trial of a preliminary issue on limitation in the Mirror Newspapers Hacking Litigation began before Fancourt J. The Mirror Group told the High Court it accepts phone hacking and other unlawful information gathering occurred but argues dozens of new claims should be dismissed because they were brought too late.

Fifty-seven claimants are suing, with five test cases examining whether the individuals were only “triggered” years later to realise they had grounds to sue, while MGN says the scale of the hacking scandal meant they should have known much earlier. The Press Gazette and Law360 covered the hearing.

The trial in the case of Baroness Lawrence and ors v Associated Newspapers Ltd KB-2022-003316 continued before the High Court this week. Actress Sadie Frost told the High Court that the Mail on Sunday unlawfully obtained private information, including details of a terminated and ectopic pregnancy, while former LibDem MP Sir Simon Hughes gave evidence about how he became a target for tabloids after his sexuality was non-consentingly disclosed by The Sun. The Press Gazette, The Telegraph, BBC, Sky News, The Guardian has been covering the trial.

Internet and Social Media

TikTok has confidentially settled with the claimants in a landmark Californian trial over alleged social media addiction, just hours before jury selection began. The case, brought by a 20-year-old woman who says platform design harmed her mental health, will now proceed against Meta and Google, after Snapchat also settled, with the companies disputing liability and arguing the claims challenge platform design rather than user-generated content. The BBC, New York Times, Bloomberg, Reuters, CNBC reported on the development.

Data privacy and data protection

Slaughter and May have a blog post examining the ICO’s guidance on agentic AI. The guidance sets out the principal data privacy risks and potential mitigations.

Surveillance

On Monday 26 January 2026, the High Court granted summary judgment and damages to human rights activist and political commentator Ghanem Al-Masarir in his misuse of private information, harassment, trespass to goods and assault claims against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Al-Masarir v Saudi Arabia [2026] EWHC 119 (KB). Saini J found that there was no real prospect the defendant could successfully defend the claims that it had hacked the claimant’s mobile phones, placed him under “Pegasus” spyware surveillance and was responsible for a physical assault he suffered in London. Matrix Chambers summarised the ruling here.

On Tuesday 27 and Wednesday 28 January 2026, there was a hearing of the judicial review in the case of R (oao Thompson & Carlo) v Metropolitan Police Service, challenging the Met Police’s use of live facial recognition (LFR). The claimants argued that the use of the surveillance technology violates the rights to privacy, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, as the Met’s policy is so permissive that it cannot be in accordance with the law. The Equalities and Human Rights Commission was also granted permission to intervene. The claimants’ skeleton argument is available here. Judgement was reserved. The BBC, The Telegraph, Daily Mail and Computer Weekly covered the hearing.

The trial took place in the same week as Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced plans to increase the number of LFR vans available for deployment from 10 to 50 in the Police Reform White Paper, which was covered by the BBC, Sky News, Guardian, The Evening Standard, Independent and The Mirror.

Newspaper Journalism and regulation

Over 120 media and legal figures, including editors from The Telegraph, Guardian Independent, Financial Times and Bloomberg, have called on the Prime Minister, Culture Secretary and Justice Secretary to introduce “universal anti-SLAPP provisions” in the next Parliament. The signatories argue that SLAPPs have been targeted against journalists, environmental campaigners and whistleblowers and accuse “wealthy and powerful claimants” of misusing the justice systems to stifle protected speech and public participation. The letter is available to read here and was covered by The Press Gazette and Legal Futures.

Law360 has an article about the failed prosecution of SLAPPs by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

IPSO

The following decisions were published this week:

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 was one defamation (libel and slander) claim issued on the media and communications list last week.

Last week in the courts

As mentioned above, the trial in Baroness Lawrence and ors v Associated Newspapers Ltd KB-2022-003316 continued all week before Nicklin J.

On Monday 26 January 2026 Saini J handed down judgment in the case of Al Masarir v Kingdom of Saudi Arabia QB-2019-003909. See above.

As mentioned above, the trial of a preliminary issue on limitation was heard in Various Claimants v MGN began on Tuesday 27 January 2026 before Fancourt J and is listed for 10 days. 5RB has a summary.

On 27 January 2026, there was a trial of preliminary issues on meaning in the case of Belafonte v News Group Newspapers Ltd KB-2025-000463 before Mrs Justice Collins Rice. The hearing was in respect of an article published in The Sun (online and in print) in June 2024 concerning Stephen Belafonte, the ex-husband of singer Melanie Brown (‘Mel B’). Mr Belafonte contends that the article accuses him of, in summary, harassing Ms Brown during a visit to the UK with his daughter, by flying a drone over her home and causing her to be visited by a process server despite her being represented by lawyers, which also intimidated her. 5RB has more information.

Also on 27 January 2026, judgment was handed down by Heather Williams J striking out the claim in Ness v Miller and ors [2026] EWHC 113 (KB). This judgment followed a trial of various preliminary issues, including libel meaning, on 15 July 2025; [2025] EWHC 1784. Heather Williams J sets out the reasons why there are no reasonable grounds for bringing the data protection claim against D1 at paragraphs [91 – 97]. The reasons for refusing the applications to amend the claim to add a data protection claim against D4 and to add her to the proceedings are explained at paragraphs [111- 119]. The false imprisonment and conspiracy applications were also dismissed.

Also on 27 January 2026, Collins Rice J handed down judgment in Bruce & Anor v High Speed Two (HS2) Ltd [2026] EWHC 134 (KB). The claim related to a BBC Panorama documentary on HS2. The Claimants were former employees of HS2 and interviewed as part of the programme. They claimed that the statements made by HS2 in response to their interviews were defamatory of them. Collins Rice J held that the single natural and ordinary meaning of the programme, in relation to each Claimant, was not defamatory at common law. The meaning found was that

“the Claimant is a whistleblower. As a senior professional with strong credentials, he gives a clear and compelling account, corroborated by his co-Claimant, of his experience, as a senior employee, of HS2 Ltd’s management of the High Speed 2 infrastructure project. His account raises issues of public concern about HS2 Ltd’s competence, transparency, probity and accountability in relation to the financing of land acquisition. There is reason to believe he was dismissed for his whistleblowing. HS2 Ltd’s response to the Claimant’s account, including of his dismissal, does not provide a satisfactory answer to it”.

The Claimants could be reassured that an ordinary reasonable viewer would not think seriously the worse of either of them, or consider them to have transgressed the common values of our society [60].

On 29 January 2026 there was a directions hearing in relation to a specific issue in the case of Baroness Lawrence v Associated Newspapers Limited before Collins Rice J.

On 29 and 30 January 2026 there was a hearing in the case of Emerging Media Ventures Ltd v Kundra KB-2025-001918.

On 30 January 2026, judgment on meaning was handed down by Griffiths J in CJ Jones Solicitors LLP (t/a CJJ Law) v Sapsford [2026] EWHC 142 (KB). The claimant is a firm of solicitors and the defendant is a former client of the firm. The claim relates to 6 emails sent by the defendant which dispute certain costs owed for services rendered by the firm. Five of the six emails complained of were held to be defamatory at common law. They contained imputations of fact and opinion that the claimant firm of solicitors had charged the defendant approximately £40,000 fraudulently, that is, dishonestly and in the knowledge that it had no proper basis for doing so [104 – 109].

Media law in other jurisdictions

Albania

Amendments to Albania’s Criminal Code were approved on 21 January 2026 by the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs and Public Administration, which if passed into law, would represent important steps forward in improving the climate for media freedom, journalists’ safety and freedom of expression. These amendments reflect a clear political intent to move away from the criminalisation of defamation as part of the European accession process, acknowledging that public-interest reporting carried out in good faith should not be subject to criminal punishment. Balkan Insight and European Journalists have more information. 

Canada

The Law Bytes podcast has a new episode exploring the ability of Canadian law to respond to concerns about the AI chatbot Grok and its creation of sexualized deep fakes.

United States

DLA Piper’s Privacy Matters blog covered the Supreme Court ruling that clarified the scope of the Video Privacy Protection Act in the case of Salazar v Paramount Global.

Research and Resources

Next week in the courts

The trial in the case of Baroness Lawrence and ors v Associated Newspapers Ltd KB-2022-003316 continues all week before Nicklin J.

The preliminary issues trial in the case of Various Claimants v MGN continues all week before Fancourt J.

On Tuesday 3 February 2026 there will be a hearing in the libel case of Read v De Giovanni KB-2025-003746.

On Wednesday 4 February 2026, there will a hearing in the data protection case of  The Good Law Project Ltd v Reform UK Party Limited KB-2025-001120.

On the same day there will be a statement in open court in the case of Raffaele Mincione -v- GEDI Gruppo Editoriale S.p.A, QB-2020-004499.

Reserved judgements

We are not aware of any reserved judgments in the MAC List.

This Round Up was prepared by Colette Allen, the host of Newscast on Dr Thomas Bennett and Professor Paul Wragg’s The Media Law Podcast (@MediaLawPodcast).