Eric Beecher is a rare beast: a combination of journalist, media owner and idealist. In 1984, aged 33, he became the youngest-ever editor of the Sydney Morning Herald and he has worked around the world as a journalist. He is currently chair and the largest shareholder in Private Media, owner of several Australian news websites, including Crikey. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Category: Media (Page 11 of 172)
The frightening scenes of far-right extremists clashing with police and even rioting in British towns and cities in recent days have many wondering how to stop the spread of the propaganda that encourages racism, violence and misogyny. Continue reading
The Queen’s Bench Division Media and Communications List User Group (MACLUG) Committee met on 22 May 2024. The meeting was chaired by Collins Rice and Steyn JJ as the joint judges in charge of the Media and Communications List. The meeting was attended by Master Davison and by a number of practitioners and civil society representatives. Continue reading
Five “Just Stop Oil” protestors, Roger Hallam, Daniel Shaw, Louise Lancaster, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu and Cressida Gethin have been sentenced to five years’ (Hallam) and four years’ (others) imprisonment for their role in planning a protest that brought part of the M25 to a standstill in November 2022. Continue reading
Reform UK were accused of running fake AI-generated candidates in the general election after several candidates were reported to have provided no contact details, photos or biographies. The party stated that all of its 609 candidates were real, albeit some were non-campaigning paper candidates. Continue reading
Hacked Off has an article examining what the UK General Election result shows about support for press reform. The Labour, Liberal Democrat, SNP, PC and Green Parties all have a history of supporting the Leveson recommendations and on 4 July 2024, they were handed an overwhelming majority. The LSE Media Policy Blog also has an article explaining what the different parties’ manifestos say about media reform. Continue reading
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was released from a British prison last week for a remote Pacific island, where he plead guilty to a conspiracy charge as part of a plea deal with the US Justice Department on Tuesday 25 June 2024. The agreement will free Assange and end the years long legal battle over the publication of classified documents. Continue reading
On 20 June 2024, the Supreme Court handed down judgement in the case of Mueen-Uddin v SSHD [2024] UKSC 21. The defamation claim concerned a 2019 report titled ‘Challenging Hateful Extremism’, which was published by the Home Office, and contained a footnote referring to the Appellant’s conviction by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in Bangladesh for crimes against humanity. The claimant has always denied the allegations and was convicted in absentia without the possibility of appeal. The High Court struck out the claim as an abuse of process, and the Court of Appeal upheld the decision in [2022] EWCA Civ 1073. Continue reading
On12 June 2024 the Supreme Court handed down the long-awaited judgement in the case of George v Cannell [2024] UKSC 19. The issues before the court were (i) whether a claimant is required to demonstrate financial loss to establish liability under s3(1) of the Defamation Act 1952 in a claim for malicious falsehood; and (ii) whether a claimant who establishes liability can recover damages for injury to feelings arising from the falsehood, even where no financial loss occurred. Continue reading
The woman who identified herself as the inspiration behind the character Martha Scott in the Netflix hit drama series Baby Reindeer has filed a $170m lawsuit against the streaming platform. In a lawsuit filed on 6 June 2024 in the US district court for the central district of California, Fiona Harvey accused Netflix of defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, gross negligence and violations of her right of publicity. The Guardian, Forbes, CNN, Variety, Reuters and BBC have more information. Continue reading
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