The Defamation Bill is presently in a twilight zone between the House of Lords and the House of Commons. It is being held up by the presence of the so-called “Puttnam Amendment” (clause 2). This problem is likely to be resolved today with cross-party agreement on the implementation of Lord Justice Leveson’s recommendations. Continue reading
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Four current or former Mirror journalists were arrested last week by Metropolitan police officers on suspicion of conspiracy to hack mobile telephones, as Inforrm reported here. Those arrested were named as James Scott, editor of the People, Nick Buckley, deputy editor of the People, Tina Weaver, former Sunday Mirror editor, and Mark Thomas, former deputy editor of the Sunday Mirror. This was the first time the Mirror Group was brought into the phone hacking investigation. Continue reading
As we reported on Friday
, the Expert Group on Leveson established by the First Minister, Alex Salmond, recommended a statutory recognition body, a regulator with jurisdiction over all publishers in Scotland and a “failsafe”. There is a BBC report about these recommendations, “McCluskey Report recommends legal press regulation in Scotland“. Continue reading
Eon v France, no. 26118/10 14 March 2013- read judgment (in French only). The applicant, Hervé Eon, is a French national, a socialist and anti-GM activist living Laval (France). The case concerned his conviction for insulting President Sarkozy.
During a visit by the President to the département of Mayenne on 28 August 2008, Mr Eon had waved a placard reading “Casse toi pov’con” (“Get lost, you sad prick”), a phrase uttered by the President himself several months previously when a farmer had refused to shake his hand at the International Agricultural Show. The utterance was widely disseminated in the media and on the internet, attaining the status of a slogan. Continue reading
Here’s a paradox: with vital votes due in Parliament on Monday, the people who run our biggest national newspapers are backing a press regulation system in which serving cabinet ministers would have a legal right to meddle whenever they liked. Continue reading
Texas State Representative Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, has proposed a “retraction statute” that, if passed, will protect journalists both online and offline and promote truth and efficiency both in and out of court.
The Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas and the Texas Press Association assisted Hunter in drafting Texas House Bill 1759 (HB 1759), which would require a prospective plaintiff to give a publisher an opportunity to correct, clarify, or withdraw false content before filing a defamation lawsuit. Continue reading
The Expert Group on the Leveson Report appointed by the Scottish Government has today published its report. It recommended a statutory recognition body with an approved regulator to have jurisdiction over all publishers. It also recommends a statutory “fail safe” with Ministers establishing an approved regulator if none is approved. Continue reading
Like their newspapers, the “representatives of the press industry” apparently negotiating with Conservative ministers over Leveson cannot shed their old habits of inaccuracy, distortion and unreliability. The statement they made yesterday about Cameron’s announcement is misleading and disingenuous, concealing the true position – that the press want to water down Leveson – behind the rhetoric of press freedom. Continue reading
In Saskatchewan (Human Rights Commission) v Whatcott 2013 SCC 11 Canada’s Supreme Court considered the balance between equality rights and rights to freedom of expression and religion. It upheld the central “hate speech” provisions in the Saskatchewan Human Rights Code, although struck down some of the code’s wording in a case prompted by flyers handed out by a religious anti-gay activist, Bill Whatcott. Continue reading
The Prime Minister has told a press conference that the Conservatives are pulling out of cross party talks about the implementation of the Leveson report. He said that regulation would not work without the consent of the press. He accepted that, as a result, the matter would be decided by Parliament on Monday 18 March 2013, when there would be a vote on “Leveson amendments” to the Crime and Courts Bill. Continue reading
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