“Fake news” – a term ironically made popular by Donald Trump – is a real problem for our democracy. This is not news which the publisher reasonably believes to be true because, for example, steps have been taken to verify the information. Read the rest of this entry »
Case Law, South Africa: Manuel v Economic Freedom Fighters, The legal consequences of fake news – Dario Milo
6 06 2019Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags: Dario Milo, Remedies
Categories : Caselaw, Libel, South Africa
Cliff Richard and the BBC, a South African perspective – Dario Milo and Molebogeng Kekana
20 08 2018
In South Africa, there is no statutory prohibition that a person who is suspected of a committing a sexual offence and who has not been arrested or summoned to appear in a criminal court – like Cliff Richard in the English case – cannot be named before they appear in court. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Cliff Richard, Daily Maverick, Dario Milo
Categories : Freedom of expression, Privacy
South Africa: The right to broadcast court cases, Henri Van Breda, Visvanathan Ponnan and open justice – Dario Milo
27 06 2017
The Henri Van Breda case (Van Breda v Media 24 Limited and Others [2017] ZASCA 97) has confirmed that cameras in courts are not only here to stay, but that this is mandated by the South African Constitution in order to facilitate open justice and the right of the public to hear and see what goes on in our courts. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments : 4 Comments »
Tags: Broadcasting Court Cases, Dario Milo
Categories : Broadcasting, Open Justice, South Africa
South Africa: Comedians fight bill that will limit the freedoms that keep us laughing – Dario Milo
2 03 2017
Public comments on the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill [pdf] were due at the end of January. A coalition of some of SA’s best comedians and satirists has taken a stand against the bill and filed submissions arguing that its hate speech provisions are unconstitutional. Among them are Pieter-Dirk Uys, John Vlismas, Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro), Kagiso Lediga, Conrad Koch (and Chester Missing), Nik Rabinowitz, Tumi Morake, Joey Rasdien, Nina Hastie, David Kau, Casper de Vries, Celeste Ntuli, Mark Banks, Jason Goliath, John Barker, Christopher Steenkamp and the creators of the satirical programme ZA News. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: Dario Milo, Hate Speech
Categories : Freedom of expression, South Africa
South Africa: Signal jamming, parliamentary broadcasts, evicting MPs, and access to share registers, the appeal courts speak – Dario Milo
14 10 2016
I acted for Primedia Broadcasting and the South African Editors’ Forum in the appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal (along with Right2Know and Open Democracy Advice Centre) concerning the now infamous signal jamming and broadcast ban that occurred during last year’s State of the Nation (SONA) address in Parliament. The Supreme Court of Appeal ruled in the plaintiffs’ favour on 29 September 2016 ( [2016] ZASCA 142). Read the rest of this entry »
Comments : 3 Comments »
Tags: Dario Milo, Musings on Media
Categories : Freedom of expression, South Africa
South Africa: Media law and free speech in 2015 and 2016 so far – Dario Milo
1 03 2016
The most important case of 2015 for the media in South Africa (even though it didn’t involve the media directly) was City of Cape Town v Sanral, as a result of which, once court documents are filed in court, we can now generally regard them as public documents. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Broadcasting, Dario Milo, Musings on Media
Categories : Broadcasting, Freedom of expression, Media, South Africa
South Africa: The case against criminal defamation – Dario Milo
29 09 2015
The ANC has dropped a welcome bombshell, saying the law has a chilling effect on free speech. One of the most significant events in the recent South African history of free speech and media law happened last Saturday at a workshop on criminal defamation, arranged by the ANC’s legal research group. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Criminal Defamation, Dario Milo
Categories : Libel, South Africa
South Africa: Are some politicians scandalising the courts? – Dario Milo
30 07 2015
In recent weeks, following the Al-Bashir scandal, some of our most powerful politicians have made provocative statements highly critical of aspects of our judiciary. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Dario Milo, Musings on Media, Scandalising the Court
Categories : Legal, South Africa
South Africa: Access to court papers is part of open justice – Dario Milo and Stuart Scott
2 07 2015Justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done. This is the essence of the principle of open justice. Put differently, the public has a right to have access to the courts, to observe how matters will be decided and to obtain court documents relating to those cases. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Dario Milo, Musings on Media, Open Justice
Categories : Legal, South Africa
Case Law, South Africa: City of Cape Town v Sanral, “It tolls for open justice” – Dario Milo
9 04 2015
Last week, the South African Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) handed down its decision ( [2015] ZASCA 58) in the appeal by the City of Cape Town against a Western Cape High Court decision which had dramatically undermined the principle of open justice. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Dario Milo, Musings on Media, Open Justice, Supreme Court of Appeal
Categories : Caselaw, Legal, South Africa
