Category Archives: public interest

“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

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

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

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

Law and Media Mid-Summer Round Up – 29 August 2012

Posted on August 29, 2012 by

Reblogged from Inforrm's Blog: 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in data protection, defamation, leveson inquiry, media ethics, media law, media law mop-up, media law resources, media regulation, press freedom, privacy, public interest, social media | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

OFT closes investigation into whether companies using threats of defamation action “to quell legitimate criticism online”

Posted on August 23, 2012 by

The Office of Fair Trading has closed an investigation into “whether a group of companies, and solicitors acting on their behalf, were using threats of defamation action to quell legitimate criticism online”.  It was examining whether that had been an … Continue reading →

Posted in defamation, freedom of expression, human rights, media law, public interest | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Should judges blog? A little more detail on the new guidance

Posted on August 17, 2012 by

The Senior Presiding Judge and the Senior President of Tribunals has issued new guidance [PDF] to all courts and tribunal judicial office holders in England and Wales. While it does not entirely prohibit blogging and social media use, it states: … Continue reading →

Posted in blogging, courts, digital open justice, freedom of expression, human rights, media law, public interest, social media | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

New event, 22 October: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism workshop on use of drones in news gathering and event coverage

Posted on August 1, 2012 by

‘Drone journalism’ is coming to the UK, in perhaps the first event of its kind in Europe (the US is already ahead on this one, with the creation of the Drone Journalism Lab at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s College of … Continue reading →

Posted in events, freedom of expression, human rights, journalism, media ethics, media law, media regulation, press freedom, public interest | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Barry Turner: Media criminality – a failure of law, not regulation

Posted on June 7, 2012 by

This guest post by Barry Turner, senior lecturer in media law at the Centre for Broadcasting and Journalism at Nottingham Trent University, is a response to this post by Daniel Bennett: ‘After Leveson – a State of the News Media report … Continue reading →

Posted in comment, leveson inquiry, media ethics, media law, phone hacking, police, public interest | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment