This week it was reported that the editors of the national newspapers had made great strides towards accepting the vast majority of Leveson’s recommendations. The Guardian reported that the broadsheet and tabloid editors ‘agreed at a breakfast summit to 40 of Leveson’s first 47 proposals – paving the way for the creation of a new regulator with powers to levy fines of up to £1m’. Continue reading
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The fascinating case of X v Facebook Ireland Ltd ([2012] NIQB 96) comes to light in the midst of general astonishment at the minimal attention paid in the Leveson Report to the ”wild west” of the internet and the question of social media regulation.
This short judgement demonstrates that a careful step by step judicial approach – with the cooperation of the defendant of course – may be the route to a range of common law tools that protect individuals from the internet’s incursions in a way which no rigidly formulated statute is capable of doing. Continue reading
As part of its tireless campaign against any form of effective press regulation, this week’s Mail on Sunday had “bombshell verdict” on the Leveson report. Leveson assessor and Liberty Director Shami Chakrabarti, had apparently told the Mail that “his law to gag press is illegal as it breaches Human Rights Act”. For good measure, the Liberty Director was reported as “blasting” Labour leader Ed Miliband’s ‘hasty and ill-considered’ endorsement of the report. This damning indictment of the Leveson Report was quickly picked up and repeated across the media. Continue reading
The judgment in MXB v East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust ([2012] EWHC 3279 (QB)) raises the short but important point that orders made under section 39 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 (“the CYPA”), which prohibit the reporting of proceedings in a manner likely to lead to the identification of a child or young person concerned in them, may not extend to online reporting. Continue reading
A poll for the Sunday Times last weekend asked people whether they thought David Cameron was opposing ‘new laws’ to underpin press regulation (a) ‘as a matter of principle‘ or (b) because ‘he does not wish to jeopardise his relationship with newspaper owners and editors’. Continue reading
Journalisted is an independent, not-for-profit website built to make it easier for the public, to find out more about journalists and what they write about. It is run by the Media Standards Trust. It collects information automatically from the websites of British news outlets. Articles are indexed by journalist, based on the byline to the article. Keywords and statistics are automatically generated, and the site searches for any blogs or social bookmarking sites linking to each article. Continue reading
The national papers are desperately scratching around for the names of people who might be regarded as sufficiently independent to serve on their new regulator. Let’s give them some help.
First, editors and proprietors are anything but independent. They are not only wholly partisan, but most of them are tainted by their longtime advocacy of the discredited Press Complaints Commission and by their record of, as the Leveson report puts it, ‘wreaking havoc in the lives of ordinary people’. So the less they have to do with setting up an independent regulatory body that is supposed to put the interests of the public before those of the industry, the better. Continue reading
I have been heartened that lawyers with experience in this area of law are beginning to voice their objection to how Leveson’s proposals are being mischaracterised by the national press. Sir Edward Garnier QC, the former Conservative solicitor general, and media barrister from One Brick Court, said the following in Parliament: “We are not talking about the statutory control of the press. Can we try and move away from the hyperbole and exaggeration which seems to suggest Lord Justice Leveson is demanding some Stalinistic control of the press?” Continue reading
The wait is over, we now know Lord Justice Leveson has steered close to, but avoided a compulsory scheme of press regulation. The incentives to join the voluntary scheme proposed are therefore crucial. Continue reading
The Inforrm Blog has now been going for nearly 3 years. Yesterday we reached another milestone – 1,500 posts. We have published more that 500 new posts in 2012. And contrary to which might have been the recent impression, not all of them have been about the Leveson Inquiry.
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