Some readers may recall that in June 2018 the Court of Justice issued a press release, to the effect that, in keeping with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Court had taken the following decision: Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Category: EU (Page 1 of 18)
In her State of the Union on 15 September 2021, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, declared: “Media companies cannot be treated as just another business. Their independence is essential. Europe needs a law that safeguards this independence – and the Commission will deliver a Media Freedom Act in the next year.” And on 16 September 2022 the European Commission put forward a number of measures to protect freedom and pluralism in the EU by introducing its European Media Freedom Act proposal (COM2022/457). Continue reading
A couple of developments on data protection damages: one from the EU which indicates that the likely direction of travel for the block’s highest court is that there’s no entitlement to compensation under the GDPR without showing harm which is more than “mere upset”; and the other from the UK which assessed damages for a personal data breach with no privacy implications at £250. Continue reading
The European Commission has published a draft European Media Freedom Act (EMFA). If passed, this new law would represent a major shift in EU policy on the media, and a welcome shot in the arm for democracy across the Union. Freed of the Eurosceptic United Kingdom, during a perceived crisis of European democracy, there is widespread support for proposals to support media freedom, and the news media themselves are likely to give them full-throated support. Continue reading
On 27 July 2022, in RT France v. Council, the General Court of the European Union found that the ban on RT France in the EU did not violate the right to freedom of expression and media freedom, under Article 11 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Notably, the General Court sought to apply principles from case law of the European Court of Human Rights and international human rights law. Continue reading
Social media allowed us to connect with one another like never before. But it came with a price – it handed a megaphone to everyone, including terrorists, child abusers and hate groups. EU institutions recently reached agreement on the Digital Services Act (DSA), which aims to “make sure that what is illegal offline is dealt with as illegal online”. Continue reading
Shortly after the Russian military invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the European Union announced a series of sanctions to hit the Putin regime. One of these measures is the blocking in the EU of the Russian state media RT (Russia Today) and Sputnik (link). Also the transmission or facilitation of the programmes or content of RT and Sputnik is banned, while the ban also affects journalistic reporting by European media outlets. Continue reading
The decision by Western powers to fight the war in Ukraine through swingeing sanctions regimes is widely regarded as a hugely powerful demonstration of the West’s unified commitment to the championing of liberal democratic values, in the face of an amoral totalitarian aggressor. However, an important question which falls to be answered is whether those regimes may ironically also pose a threat to the very values they are seeking to defend, particularly insofar as they operate so as to curb media and online freedoms; free expression of course being one of the cornerstones of any liberal democracy. Continue reading
Non-consensual pornography, commonly referred to as image-based sexual abuse, is easily and freely available on pornography websites. Yet, to date, responses to this problem have been partial and fragmented. There is the possibility that this situation will change. Proposals to impose obligations on pornography sites to reduce the extent of this unlawful material have been inserted into the European Parliament’s negotiating position on the Digital Services Act (DSA) as Article 24b. Continue reading
This is my selection of the top data breach fines in the EU and the United Kingdom in 2021, many of which have featured in our Law and Media Round Ups over the past year. Continue reading
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