Category Archives: data

New paper: Leveson online – A publicly reported inquiry

Posted on February 27, 2013 by

My paper on public access to the Leveson Inquiry has been published in the new issue of Ethical Space, The International Journal of Communication Ethics. Abstract: The Leveson Inquiry has broken new ground for court and political reporting: for the first … Continue reading →

Posted in academic research, access to justice, blogging, courts, data, digital open justice, freedom of expression, human rights, journalism, leveson inquiry, media ethics, press freedom | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“Full” courts lists continued: what are the data protection and contempt issues? And who should be able to access them?

Posted on February 11, 2013 by

A quick update to my recent post on digital publication of Magistrates’ court lists. I reported how blogger Richard Taylor obtained a “full” court list from his local Magistrates’ Court following a Freedom of Information request. However, he did not … Continue reading →

Posted in access to justice, blogging, courts, data, digital open justice, public interest, reporting restrictions | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Legislation: open the data and enable participation

Posted on February 1, 2013 by

Last Friday I attended an excellent and inspiring presentation by John Sheridan, head of legislation services at the National Archives, at the Open Data Institute.  ODI’s Kathryn Corrick has helpfully uploaded both the audio and his presentation. The Indigo Trust … Continue reading →

Posted in academic research, courts, data, digital open justice, education, access to justice, Public Legal Education | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Digitally published Magistrates’ Court Lists: how should it be done?

Posted on January 23, 2013 by

There is little disagreement with the idea that there should be increased public access to legal proceedings, but how it should be done creates some debate.  As I’ve written before, online publication of court records has developed in a piecemeal … Continue reading →

Posted in access to justice, blogging, courts, criminal law, data, digital open justice, freedom of information | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Reporting privacy injunctions: a response from Gideon Benaim

Posted on September 13, 2012 by

I recently asked a couple of questions about reporting anonymised privacy injunctions, following a piece by Gideon Benaim in the Guardian. Benaim, a partner at Michael Simkins LLP, has responded with a full blog post response, which is published on Inforrm … Continue reading →

Posted in courts, data, digital open justice, media law, newspapers, privacy, public interest, reporting restrictions | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Full Fact: “Open justice in this century must mean more than merely being able to walk into the courtroom”

Posted on August 2, 2012 by

Full Fact is a non-profit fact-checking organisation based in the UK, which has given oral and written evidence to the Leveson Inquiry. Part of its submission on ‘The internet and the Inquiry’ [PDF] concerns access to judicial information, which Full … Continue reading →

Posted in comment, courts, data, digital open justice, leveson inquiry, media ethics, media law, media law resources | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Open Justice in the Digital Era – a couple of updates

Posted on June 29, 2012 by

A few quick updates on recent developments relating to open legal data. “Unleashing the potential” The Cabinet Office has published its white paper on open data.  Freedom of Information and Re-using Data is covered, which the Guardian summarises here on … Continue reading →

Posted in academic research, blogging, courts, data, digital open justice, freedom of information | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The trouble with counting defamation cases

Posted on May 3, 2012 by

As anyone who has tried will know, it’s very hard to measure different types of civil litigation in England & Wales. I am primarily interested in defamation and privacy claims; some information can be obtained from the courts when you … Continue reading →

Posted in academic research, blogging, courts, data, defamation, digital open justice, freedom of information, journalism, media law, media law resources | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

#TAL12: Crime reporting for hyperlocals

Posted on April 29, 2012 by

One of the impromptu sessions at the informal Talk About Local conference in Birmingham on Saturday discussed crime reporting – instigated by Ed Walker, who is founder of Blog Preston and senior digital producer with Trinity Mirror Regionals: “Thinking of … Continue reading →

Posted in blogging, contempt of court, courts, data, digital open justice, hyperlocal publishing, journalism, media ethics, media law | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Should we regulate the hyperlocal space? And what are the legal issues?

Posted on April 24, 2012 by

This weekend I’m very much looking forward to a day in Birmingham at the Talk About Local / N0tice 2012 “unconference”. My current research project focuses on national newspapers and media law/regulation and I’m keen to extend my view to … Continue reading →

Posted in blogging, courts, data, digital open justice, hyperlocal publishing, journalism, media ethics, media law | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments