Ofcom has continued to tighten enforcement of the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA) in relation to online pornography, issuing two further penalties in February 2026 against operators of adult websites for failing to deploy legally required age-assurance measures. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Category: Media Regulation (Page 1 of 72)
Recently, I have been reminded of a quote: “You can become so single-minded in the defence of your own principles that you forget to follow them”. I first heard those words spoken by Joe Turner, a (fictional) CIA agent, describing treachery amongst his bosses.
The resignation of the BBC’s director general and CEO of news is only the latest symptom of a deeper malaise in the media , a crisis of trust that runs through broadcasters and newspapers alike. Continue reading
The resignations of the BBC’s director general and director of news were shocking. Perhaps just as shocking is the US$1 billion legal threat the broadcaster now faces from US president Donald Trump. Continue reading
A new public opinion poll by YouGov, commissioned by the Press Recognition Panel (“PRP”) shows that 54% of the public believe that the press should be regulated by a fully independent body. 22% support regulation by a government backed body body with only 3% saying it should be carried out by a group run by the news industry. Continue reading
In 1999 The House of Lords made a seismic change to the law of defamation. Its effect was to fortify the power of Fleet Street to libel individuals for profit without sanction, thereby both fundamentally undermining their human rights and permitting the press to persist in promulgating any falsities favoured by editorial agendas. This aberrant judicial law-making was justified by the most monumental intellectual dishonesty. Continue reading
One of the first executive orders that President Trump signed after his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, was titled Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship. The order accused the previous administration of having “trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms.” Continue reading
For most of us the portal via which we glean information about key national and international issues is the media. It is essential therefore that we can rely on it both to (per Clause 1(i) of IPSO Editors Code) “take care not to publish inaccurate or misleading material” and inform us when it errs. Continue reading
What the matters discussed in Part One of this post demonstrate above all is the complexity and difficulty of critiquing the OSA as a threat to perfectly legitimate forms of expression when such significant parts of the mainstream media, namely the Telegraph, Times, Sun, Express, Mail and GB News, along with pressure groups such as the Free Speech Union and powerful right-wing ‘think tanks’ (in actual fact, ‘free market’ lobbyists) such as the Adam Smith Institute and Policy Exchange have, in pursuit of their own political and ideological ends, repeatedly set it up as a straw man and attacked it from the perspective of what has come to be known as free speech fundamentalism. Continue reading
In a recent article for the journal Porn Studies I raised doubts about whether children and young people watching porn online is apparently so harmful to them that the restrictive measures proposed by the Online Safety Act (OSA) are necessary, proportionate and compatible with the UK’s various human rights obligations. I also posed the question of whether these measures, and particularly the requirements for age-verification, are actually workable. Continue reading
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