The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Brian Cowen served as Taoiseach (Prime Minister of Ireland) from 2008 to 2011. He did not stand for re-election as a TD (MP) in 2011.
I know what you did last Summer, Mr Cowen, and in fact we all know what you did last Summer, Mr Cowen, because the the Irish Mail on Sunday reported on your enrollment in the Executive Education Programme at Stanford University in California. Continue reading
One of the most entertaining pieces of evidence that Lord Justice Leveson heard during his inquiry’s hearings into the culture, practice and ethics of the press concerned UK Prime Minister David Cameron‘s understanding of the popular sms abbreviation LOL. He had thought it stood for “lots of love“, and had used it to sign off his texts to Rebekah Brooks (sometime Editor of the News of the World, and the Sun, and CEO of News International), until he discovered that it in fact stands for “laugh out loud” (see transcript for 11 May 2012, p76 (pdf)). Given his immediate rejection of the main press regulation recommendations in Lord Justice Leveson’s Report (also here), published on 29 November 2012, he is obviously laughing out loud at the Leveson Inquiry, not showering it with lots of love. Continue reading
In my previous post, I discussed a temporary injunction obtained by music promoter David Kavanagh to prevent the sale of Melanie Verwoerd’s memoir When We Dance. The book charts her Afrikaner upbringing, her marriage to the grandson of an architect of apartheid, her anti-apartheid involvement with the African National Congress, her time as South African ambassador to Ireland and as head of UNICEF Ireland, and her relationship with celebrity DJ Gerry Ryan until his unexpected death on the night of 29 April 2010. Continue reading
I have written before on this blog about prior restraints and temporary and permanent injunctions in defamation cases. Not long after the South African Constitutional Court effectively outlawed prior restraint in that jurisdiction (see Print Media South Africa v Minister of Home Affairs [2012] ZACC 22 (28 September 2012); blogged here), I learn that on Wednesday 10 October 2012 Gilligan J in the High Court in Ireland granted temporary injunctions to prevent the sale of a memoir written by the South African partner of a deceased celebrity Irish DJ (cover right): Continue reading
Say you are a 15-year old girl. What would you do if you find a fake Facebook profile which contains a photograph of you, a slightly modified version of your name and other particulars which identified you, which discusses your physical appearance and weight in derogatory terms, and which includes scandalous sexual commentary about you? First, you’d contact Facebook, to have the fake profile taken down and to identify the IP address associated with it. Continue reading
There’s quite a lot to digest in the recent decision of Hogan J. in Cornec v. Morrice & Ors. Most of the judgment deals with wider issues in the protection of journalists’ sources, and unsurprisingly the media coverage so far tends to focus on this aspect. But reading the judgment, I was struck by the way in which it considered whether non-traditional media could also benefit from similar protections. In particular, it appears to be the first Irish judgment to consider the position of bloggers. Continue reading
The drumbeats for privacy legislation can once again be heard around Leinster House. I did a radio interview with Matt Cooper on Today FM’s The Last Word and I had an op-ed about it in the Irish Examiner: Continue reading
On 22 August 2012, in the Irish Independent, Dearbbail McDonald reported that the public will get better access to court documents under plans being considered by the Government: “Ireland is unique among countries with a common law system as it does not provide access to court documents. Members of the public, as well as the media, have no way of securing access to documents, including court statements and legal submissions, that are opened and relied on in legal proceedings. … The lack of access to court files has been raised in submissions to amend the forthcoming Legal Services Regulation Bill“. Continue reading
The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) is the body responsible for the regulation of broadcasting in Ireland, and two of its recent decisions raise the same question of whether a power provided to it by the Broadcasting Act, 2009 (also here) is consistent with the right to freedom of expression protected by the Irish Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. Continue reading
Hot on the heels of McKillen v Misland (Cyprus) Investments Limited [2012] EWHC 1158 (Ch) (26 April 2012), about which I blogged in my previous post, the ever-wonderful Stare Decisis Hibernia blog draws attention to a 2010 open justice case in the Irish High Court. In In re Skytours Travel Ltd, Doyle v Bergin [2010] IEHC 531 (9 July 201o) Laffoy J refused to hear a dispute between shareholders in camera. Continue reading
© 2026 Inforrm's Blog
Theme by Anders Norén — Up ↑