Every time that Britain’s national newspapers are threatened with a more effective form of regulation than that allegedly provided by IPSO, they are wont to scream blue murder that what is being proposed is nothing less than “state licensing” of the press. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Category: Media Regulation (Page 1 of 63)
One of the more perplexing provisions of the draft Online Safety Bill is its multi-level definition of legal but harmful content (“lawful but awful” content, to give it its colloquial name). Continue reading
The press lobbying described in Part 2 continued . Dire warnings about the effects of the measures proposed in the White Paper have continued to appear in papers such as the Mail. Continue reading
A draft of the White Paper was leaked to the Mail on Sunday, 24 March 2019, which noted specifically that “the new rules will target any site that allows users to share or discover user-generated content or interact with each other online” and argued that this would mean that newspaper websites would be forced to sign up to the regulator. Continue reading
Long before the Draft Online Safety Bill was published in May the press had been lobbying strenuously to ensure that the online versions of newspapers would not fall within its scope in any way whatsoever. Continue reading
When he announced the Online Harms White Paper in April 2019 the then Culture Secretary, Jeremy Wright QC, was at pains to reassure the press that the proposed regulatory regime would not impinge on press freedom. Continue reading
Reading the Times newspaper on Tuesday. I was somewhat gobsmacked to see Sean O’Neill, the paper’s chief reporter, complaining that “The UK has no constitutional protection for a free press and no real cap on costs for libel actions.” These two facts formed the centrepiece of his argument that abuse of British courts is killing free speech. Continue reading
Beyond the headline decision that Donald Trump will be banned from Facebook for two years from the date of his initial suspension, Facebook has unveiled a new protocol whereby public figures may be banned for up to two years during times of civil unrest and ongoing violence. Continue reading
On 12 May 2021, two years after the publication of its Online Harms White Paper, the Government published the Online Safety Bill, “a new regulatory framework to tackle harmful content online”. Continue reading
Two years on from the April 2019 Online Harms White Paper, the government has published its draft Online Safety Bill. It is a hefty beast: 133 pages and 141 sections. It raises a slew of questions, not least around press and journalistic material and the newly-coined “content of democratic importance”. Continue reading
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