It is difficult to comprehend the full cynicism and inhumanity of the tabloid press until you have confronted it. Sometimes its oligarchs give you a spontaneous glimpse of the value systems of the tabloid empires. I was on a panel with Kelvin MacKenzie for a debate about the law on privacy some years ago (very much back in the public eye), and an audience member asked him whether he had ever given any consideration about the impact of the stories he published on its subjects. He replied without hesitation that he had not. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Tag: Jonathan Coad (Page 3 of 4)
The reminder that the Hillsborough inquiry gave us of the appalling role that The Sun played in the trauma and heartbreak of the families of the victims is a good moment to remember that it is (amongst other Fleet St Goliaths) The Sun that insists that it be permitted to regulate itself. Continue reading
One of the least reliable places to learn about media law is from the media because of its obvious partisan perspective. There are exceptions such as the BBC, ITN, Sky News and other broadcast outlets. Continue reading
Labelled “EXCLUSIVE: BOMBSHELL CLAIM OVER EUROPE VOTE” the Sun in letters more than 6cm high exclaims: “QUEEN BACKS BREXIT”. This startling revelation is then followed by the Sun sub-heading “EU going in wrong direction, she says”. The Sun is however guilty of a grotesque deception not only of its own readers but of millions who have not bought the paper or visited its website. Continue reading
The irrefutable evidence that IPSO is and was always intended to be the same kind of sham regulators as its three un-illustrious predecessors emerges clearly from how it administers its primary remedy. If IPSO had any intention of actually uncovering any wrongdoing on the part of the press it would not have instigated a 28 day period in which the press can cover up its wrongdoing. If it had any intention of deterring the press from breaching even its self-written code of practice then it would permit it to publish corrections and apologies which are a fraction the size of the offending article. Continue reading
Sir Alan Moses has been propagandising again about the merits of IPSO, and in particular its alleged superiority over its predecessor, the Press Complaints Commission (“PCC”). He told the Guardian that IPSO is “much better than before” – by which he presumably means the PCC. I will demonstrate that he is plainly wrong about this. Continue reading
In a trial which took place in July 2015 Warby J found that the reputation of a foreign national living overseas had suffered “serious harm” as a result of the publication by the Huffington Post of a third party blog on its website about a marital dispute between the claimant and his ex-wife ([2015] EWHC 2242 (QB)). By that decision the High Court elucidated some general principles about how section 1 of the Defamation Act 2013 should be applied in the preliminary stages of a defamation claim. Continue reading
Howls of outrage from the press led by Lord Black have apparently persuaded the government to withdraw its statutory stick in the form the Crime and Courts Act 2013 which was passed by our elected representatives to prevail on the press belatedly to join the democratic community and be independently regulated. Continue reading
At the end of the Leveson Inquiry, at which only a small proportion of the serial institutional wrongdoing committed by the press was brought to light, the industry was presented with a straight choice. It could take account of the clearly expressed aspirations of the general public and its elected representatives and create a genuinely independent regulatory body compliant with the reasonable and moderate recommendations of Sir Brian Leveson. Continue reading
The PCC was belatedly consigned to the dustbin of history when it was finally so obvious that it was a failed regulator (as was always its purpose) that even the press finally had to admit it. From that point the press will have begun the process of replacing it with an entity which was as institutionally bound to fail as its predecessor – ideally with a cloak of respectability derived from hiring high profile individuals who would then be prepared for a healthy salary to participate in the same confidence trick that comprised the PCC. Continue reading
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