It took just two years for the idea of an anti-SLAPP statute to go from a grassroots movement in the UK to its realisation in legislation. There are obvious problems with the resulting anti-SLAPP provisions in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (“ECCTA”), and the more general “SLAPPs Bill”, currently at the Committee Stage. Both are overinclusive in their definition of “SLAPPs”, and the burden they place on claimants is likely to lead to problems with access to justice. But what should be done about SLAPPs? Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Tag: Mark Hanna (Page 1 of 2)
There has been previous comment here on the various stages of Banks v Cadwalladr, and the facts have been well-stated. However, there has so far been no comment on the substantive decision of the Court of Appeal in the case. This post aims to fill the gap. There is a lot going on in the Court of Appeal’s decision. It brings some clarity to novel issues like the judicial definition of SLAPPs, the meaning of ‘echo chamber’ for the purpose of s 1 of the 2013 Act, and the need to reassess serious harm once the public interest defence falls away. Continue reading
Just what exactly is the Government proposing in its recently published Response to the Call for Evidence on Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs)? As one commentator on this forum has pointed out, the ‘devil is in the detail’ of the Response, and the suggested reforms raise ‘more questions than answers’. This is not to question the existence of SLAPPs, or to cast aspersions on the sudden willingness for public debate on the issue. Continue reading
Northern Ireland has never shown much enthusiasm for the Defamation Act 2013. When it first came on the agenda for debate there, the Finance Minister at the time declined to table it and declared that ‘Northern Ireland had no plans to review its defamation law’. However, it is only now that the Northern Ireland Assembly has been formally tasked with contemplating similar reform (see the Northern Ireland Defamation Bill) that the full scale of hostility towards the 2013 Act has come to the fore. Continue reading
Day 114, Part 2: Mark Hanna, News International’s security chief, did nothing more than pick up some property from Rebekah Brooks’ husband Charlie and arrange its return the following day, his lawyer told the phone hacking trial today. Continue reading
Day 84, Part 2: A News International administration assistant helped place a bag belonging to Charlie Brooks into two bin bags and stowed the property under her desk at the newspaper group’s HQ for hours while Mr Brooks’s wife Rebekah was under arrest, a court heard today. Continue reading
Day 83: News International’s head of security today denied being part of a plot to shield Rebekah Brooks and the newspaper group from the Metropolitan Police’s investigation into phone hacking.
Mark Hanna, suspended on full pay by the newspaper company when he was charged in May 2012, said he would not commit a crime for anyone. Continue reading
Day 82, Part 2: News International’s head of security did not know Rebekah Brooks had been arrested on the day until hours after he allegedly hid evidence from detectives, he told the phone hacking trial today. Continue reading
Day 82, Part 1: A security chief for Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper group agreed to keep from the police a stash of pornography belonging to the husband of former chief executive Rebekah Brooks, the phone hacking trial heard today. Continue reading
Day 81, Part 2: News International’s head of security today denied burning documents that incriminated the company in his back garden. Continue reading
Recent Judgments
© 2024 Inforrm's Blog
Theme by Anders Norén — Up ↑