Leveson, phone hacking and press regulation have been overshadowed this week by the ongoing crisis at the BBC, which has seen the director general George Entwistle resign after 54 full days in post. Prior to his resignation, the BBC issued an “unreserved apology for a Newsnight report which led to Lord McAlpine being wrongly implicated in the alleged sexual abuse of children at north Wales care homes“. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a named contributor to the Newsnight programme, has published a statement from its trustees here. The Independent speculates on the likely candidates for the D-G job here. Continue reading
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Tag: Round Up (Page 7 of 8)
The Court of Appeal has delivered judgment in the joined cases of Cairns v Modi and KC v MGN Ltd ([2012] EWCA Civ 1382). Both appeals concerned the assessment of damages in libel actions, as Kirsten Sjøvoll reported for Inforrm here. The appeal in Cairns was dismissed; the award was found to be proportionate to the gravity of the allegations made against Cairns. In KC, however, the award of damages was reduced to £50,000. Continue reading
Frankie Boyle was successful in his libel claim against Mirror Group Newspapers, as Inforrm reported here. The jury found in Boyle’s favour on liability: they found that he had been libelled by an article which described him as a “racist comedian” and by a claim that he had been “forced to quit” the BBC show Mock the Week. On the first allegations, he was awarded damages of £50,400 and, on the second, damages of £4,250. He is to donate the award in damages to the charity Reprieve, the BBC reports. Continue reading
The Jimmy Savile scandal continues to dominate news headlines, with focus on the BBC’s decision to drop its Newsnight film. Reports in the The Times (£), Channel 4, the Independent and elsewhere quote internal emails between the production team. A BBC Panorama special is expected to air on Monday evening. The former editor of the Today Programme, Kevin Marsh (whose new book on the BBC and the Hutton Inquiry is out) has a post commenting on the editorial process and wider implications here. Continue reading
We lead with criminal, rather than civil, law developments relating to media and communications. There have been a spate of prosecutions relating to social media use: a teenager from Lancashire was imprisoned for sick and grossly offensive jokes on his Facebook page about the missing 5 year old April Jones and Madeline McCann; in the same week, Azhar Ahmed was sentenced to 240 hours of community service for posting an offensive update to his Facebook page about British soldiers in Afghanistan, following the death of six British soldiers. Continue reading
We are now a week into the new legal term, and while it’s still party conference season for MPs, the Defamation Bill will receive its second reading in the House of Lords on Monday 9 October. A House of Lords Library Note has been published in advance of the second reading. A number of media law cases have already come before the courts this term. Continue reading
We begin, once again, with phone hacking. At a hearing last week in the managed litigation before Mr Justice Vos it was disclosed that there are now 154 claims before the courts and that the Metropolitan Police have given disclosure of documents to a total of 620 potential claimants. Since the “second round” of the litigation began in February 2012 News Group Newspapers have settled 80 actual or threatened civil claims, and one claim in its “compensation scheme”. Continue reading
The theme of privacy continued to dominate media law discussion last week, as a French court granted an injunction prohibiting further publication of the Duchess of Cambridge photographs in France. Press Gazette reported that the editor of the Irish Daily Star, Michael O’Kane, was suspended following his decision to publish the photographs. Continue reading
The Inforrm Law & Media round up is back from a summer break, slightly ahead of the start of the new legal term. These regular weekly round ups contain summaries of relevant legal and parliamentary proceedings and media content, as well as listings for the week ahead. They are compiled from various legal and news sources, but additional suggestions and content is always welcomed, particularly in relation to defamation, privacy, contempt of court and media regulation, although other media and communication legal topics will be included. Please send suggestions, tips and event listings for inclusion in future round ups to jt.townend@gmail.com.
Parliamentarians are still in recess, Lord Justice Leveson has finished taking evidence for Part 1 of his Inquiry, the Michaelmas legal term has not yet begun, but there have been more than enough media law related developments to justify a mid-summer round up, including new dates for the autumn calendar. Continue reading
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