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
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Category: Media Regulation (Page 2 of 73)
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
Several pieces of legislation across the world are coming into effect this year to tackle harms experienced online, such as the UK’s Online Safety Act and Australia’s Online Safety Act. There are also new standards, regulations, acts and laws related to digital products (including smart devices such as voice assistants, virtual headsets) and services such as social media platforms. Continue reading
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) Annual Report for 2024/25 released last week sadly provides evidence of a severe and serious weakening of information rights regulation compared to the strong enforcement which is (and remains) promised especially under the (UK) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Continue reading
Section 179 of the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018 places the Secretary of State under a duty to ensure that a Report is “la[id] before Parliament” on both the “use” and “effectiveness” of “relevant alternative dispute resolution procedures” in cases involving actual or alleged failures by media organisations, other than broadcasters, “to comply with the data protection legislation”. Continue reading
Recent Judgments
© 2026 Inforrm's Blog
Theme by Anders Norén — Up ↑