Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013 was intended to incentivise newspapers to join an independent regulator, by protecting regulated publishers from costs while directing costs against unregulated publishers (where the court finds it reasonable and just to do so). In 2018, the previous Government chose not to bring section 40 into force; claiming it would financially ruin publishers. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Tag: Section 40 (Page 1 of 3)
We need to do away with these libel laws, says Meirion Jones in The Guardian, because they only protect evildoers and they stop us, the press, from bringing them to justice. I can reveal, he continued, that The Sun could have brought Jimmy Savile to justice in 2008 but the threat of libel action meant that all the testimony they collected was wasted and so, since the chance of a scoop was gone, they did nothing with it… Continue reading
The Crime and Courts Act 2013 (‘CCA’) sections 34-42 inclusive are headed “Publishers of news-related material: damages and costs” and form a complete and closely integrated scheme enacted for the public benefit, and the protection of the press from spurious complaints, for implementation as a whole. How can bringing section 40 into force logically be a question of government policy? Continue reading
On Wednesday 9 May 2018, the House of Commons will deal with the Report Stage of Data Protection Bill. [pdf] Two amendments relevant to press regulation have been proposed. Continue reading
It is a longstanding national scandal that, although in principle the law protects us against libel and breach of privacy by news publishers, with rare exceptions those laws work only for the rich. The vast majority of people in Britain simply can’t afford to go to court to uphold their right not to be lied about and and their right to have a private life. Continue reading
The Media Secretary, Karen Bradley, told the Commons Media Select Committee this week that she will announce the long-overdue outcome of her consultation on Section 40 and Leveson Part Two ‘shortly’ – hinting it would be in the next few weeks.
On 23 June 2017 the Department of Culture Media and Sport replied to a Freedom of Information request, posted on WhatDoTheyKnow, concerning the government’s Consultation on the Leveson Inquiry and its implementation. Continue reading
This was the question for debate at Cardiff University School of Journalism on 24 May, an event originally envisaged as a discussion on the possible implementation of section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013 as a threat to the freedom of the press or, alternatively, an opportunity for those wronged by the media to find justice. Continue reading
The Conservative election manifesto [pdf] reveals with absolute clarity the depth of Theresa May’s subservience to the billionaire-owned, Brexit-backing corporate national press. Continue reading
The Supreme Court has dismissed appeals brought by the Murdoch, Mail and Mirror newspaper companies in relation to costs they must pay in libel and privacy cases they have lost – but at the same time the judges have thrown the future of access to justice in such cases into the lap of the government. Continue reading
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