Category Archives: press freedom

Coming soon: People Power – A user’s guide to democracy

Posted on June 14, 2013 by

An “accessible guide to democracy in Britain” will be published by Bantam Press (Transworld) next month, covering topics including national and local government,  free speech, the internet and the rule of law. The author of People Power, Dan Jellinek, is … Continue reading →

Posted in access to justice, blogging, defamation, media law, media law resources, media regulation, press freedom | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Open letter: Justice and Security Bill is ‘a charter for cover ups’

Posted on March 4, 2013 by

My name is among the signatories of this open letter written in protest at the measures proposed in the Justice and Security Bill, which has reached its report stage and third reading in the House of Commons.  For more background … Continue reading →

Posted in academic research, access to justice, courts, digital open justice, freedom of expression, human rights, press freedom | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

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

The BBC and ‘tragedies of the fourth estate’

Posted on November 21, 2012 by

There’s an excellent piece by Paul Lashmar, investigative journalist and lecturer at Brunel University, on openDemocracy this week, examining the role of – and implications for – investigative journalism in the recent ‘BBC debacle’. I was particularly interested in the … Continue reading →

Posted in broadcasting, defamation, journalism, media ethics, media law, press freedom | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Beyond Leveson: Legal protection for online and ‘citizen’ media

Posted on November 7, 2012 by

I’ve previously written about Leveson’s online elephant (as had Index on Censorship’s Marta Cooper before me). As the debate intensifies over the shape of ‘press’ regulation (the key question is whether or not a new regulator should be underpinned by … Continue reading →

Posted in blogging, defamation, freedom of expression, human rights, media law, media law resources, media regulation, press freedom, social media | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Law and Media Round Up – 5 November 2012

Posted on November 5, 2012 by

Defamation, regulation, and internet policy in this week’s media law round up, including  judgments in Cairns v Modi and KC v MGN Ltd ([2012] EWCA Civ 1382) [media summary here, PDF] and Ismail & Anor v News Group Newspapers Ltd … Continue reading →

Posted in defamation, media law mop-up, media law resources, press freedom, privacy | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Unmanned aerial journalism: how drones could be the industry’s next big thing

Posted on October 26, 2012 by

Some specialists would prefer that we called drones by their official name, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. However, UAV journalism doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as ‘drone journalism’, which according to participants at a seminar in Oxford this week … Continue reading →

Posted in academic research, blogging, data protection, events, media law, photography, press freedom, privacy | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Gideon Benaim: Payments for private information and the regulation of journalism

Posted on October 5, 2012 by

Gideon Benaim, partner at Michael Simkins LLP (formerly of Schillings), has responded to my question about the potential regulation of payments for private information, in a blog post for Inforrm. He argues that “unless there is a legitimate public interest … Continue reading →

Posted in blogging, digital open justice, journalism, media ethics, media law, media regulation, newspapers, press freedom, privacy, public interest | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Leveson’s Legacy: Beyond dusty tomes and 21st century buzzwords

Posted on September 17, 2012 by

This post first appeared on the Center for Global Communication Studies blog, at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania.  “The one thing I am determined not to do is to produce a document which simply sits on the … Continue reading →

Posted in academic research, blogging, digital open justice, leveson inquiry, media ethics, media regulation, newspapers, press freedom, public interest | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How should privacy injunctions be reported?

Posted on September 6, 2012 by

The recommended procedure and law around privacy injunctions “isn’t quite fit for purpose” according to Gideon Benaim, a partner at Michael Simkins LLP (formerly of Schillings), writing in the Guardian today. Comments seem to be closed on the piece so … Continue reading →

Posted in comment, freedom of expression, human rights, journalism, leveson inquiry, media ethics, media law, press freedom, privacy, public interest, super injunctions | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments