On Saturday the “Independent” ran a story about a 2007 report from the Serious Organised Crime Agency (“SOCA”) suggesting that law firms, telecoms giants and insurance were hiring private investigators to break the law and further their commercial interests. The activities identified by the investigation were said to have included telephone tapping and hacking and blagging information from banks, credit card companies and mobile phone companies. Continue reading
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Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Keir Starmer has issued final guidelines to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on prosecutions involving social media communications, as Out-Law.com reports here. According to the DPP, “the three month consultation period has shown that the interim guidelines, published in December 2012, were in the right place“. Continue reading
The appeals by national newspaper editors for a return to the negotiating table in order to unpick the cross-party royal charter are as predictable as they are patently self-serving. What is more disturbing is that the Guardian, the paper that did more than any other institution to reveal the scale of the phone-hacking scandal, appears to be being carried along by the current. Continue reading
The Media Standards Trust has produced an impressive chronology and analysis of the six Royal Charters introduced since the Leveson report of 29 November 2012 in the form of a “Timeline”. This can also be viewed at Timeline JS (where the width is less constrained). Continue reading
The Court of Appeal have allowed the appeal of the Sunday Times in the libel case brought former Conservative Party Treasurer, Peter Cruddas ([2013] EWCA Civ 748) against the ruling of Mr Justice Tugendhat that the published articles made an allegation of corruption contrary to the criminal law ([2013] EWHC 1427 (QB)). The Court set aside the orders striking out the defence of justification and entering judgment for the claimant. The trial will now have to proceed. Continue reading
The publishers of the Daily Mail have agreed to pay damages of £125,000 to the “psychic to the stars”, Sally Morgan, in respect of an article which alleged that she had cheated an audience in Dublin by using an earpiece. The trial of the action had been due to commence on 10 June 2013 but a settlement was announced in a Statement in Open Court [pdf] read to Mr Justice Tugendhat on 20 June 2013. Continue reading
Speaking for the annual Charles Wheeler Lecture on Journalism at Westminster University, Shadow Culture Minister Harriet Harman called for a cross-party process for new regulation on media plurality. Professor of Communications Steven Barnett, who has advised various parliamentary, governmental and European bodies on media issues, hosted the event. LSE Media Policy Project’s Sally Broughton Micova asked him about his views on some of the solutions Harman proposed and discussed his new project on media plurality and expectations for future policy in this area. Continue reading
The rapid growth of revenue-hungry Indian media and recent scandals involving news outlets have prompted growing calls for external regulation, raising concerns about independence of the press. In May 2013, a parliamentary committee argued for the creation of a statutory body to control the print and electronic media. Continue reading
There has been much online debate this weekend about the Sunday People’s use of photographs of the television chef Nigella Lawson and her husband Charles Saatchi, and the ethical issues involved. Commentaries can be found at the New Statesman and Zelo Street. Continue reading
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