A report of the press conference will be appearing on the Inforrm blog soon (I painstakingly transcribed the Master of the Rolls’ and Lord Chief Justice’s comments before finding the full transcript online) and also see my pieces here:

• Index on Censorship>> Should press be gagged when reporting Parliament?
• Guardian>> Lord Neuberger’s report cuts through super injunction hysteria

I’ll be back with the normal round up next week. The media law fun continues.

UPDATE: My report and transcript for the Inforrm blog can be found here. Response to the committee’s report is mixed to say the least; another Inforrm post finds it “thorough, thoughtful but not the last word,” while the Daily Mail calls it “a dark day for open justice”. Meanwhile, Twitter’s role in all this is back in the headlines; Channel 4′s Krishnan Guru-Murthy reflects on that here.

“Although it’s very important to expose miscreants on the phone hacking-front (…), are you (and others) not missing the point? Given phone hacking is so widespread, is it not the mobile-phone operators who should be taken to task for allowing personal data to be so easily accessed?” Randy Banks, University of Essex.

This does seem rather a neglected angle (despite the acres of coverage dedicated to the scandal in the Guardian). It’s not just celebrity reporters who might be motivated to access personal voicemail; what additional precautions are mobile phone companies taking to protect voicemail services, now weaknesses in the system have been exposed? Znet has a piece on phone hacking here, but it doesn’t address the issue of voicemail.

A lot to mop up on this bank holiday morning following the Xmas/NY break. The hot ML news issue is Contempt of Court, as newspapers and tweeters push the boundaries with reports and commentary on the Joanna Yeates murder case (I suspect many of the people I follow on Twitter aren’t typical because they were all worrying about the CoC issues and warning their followers to take care). The pieces to read:

• Media Guardian>>Yeates murder: Attorney General warns press to beware of contempt http://bit.ly/hKEehy
• Media Guardian>>Joanna Yeates murder case puts media coverage in the spotlight http://bit.ly/h5Nuak
• David Banks>>Molecular chemistry, contempt of court and the reporting of the Joanna Yeates case http://bit.ly/ffjRtL
• Inforrm>>Media Responsibility and Chris Jeffries http://bit.ly/dGwb7q
• Enemies of Reason>> Chris Jeffries and trial by media http://bit.ly/ftNSFF

Libel

• Jack of Kent, aka David Allen Green, has launched a defamation series on his blog. The first post looks at the purpose of defamation law.
• The Clift v Slough Borough Council case discussed in Heather Brooke’s book, The Silent State, featured on the 5RB site, following a judgment in the Court of Appeal in favour of the claimant, released on 21st December. 5RB reported: “In a significant decision for all public authorities, it was held that a public authority should only be entitled to rely on the defence of qualified privilege  in respect of a defamatory publication if it the publication was consistent with its public law duties.” Further commentary by lawyer Francis Davey on Nearly Legal at this link.

Meanwhile the Wikileaks and phone hacking stories rumble on. Follow @WLLegal, for links to articles about the legal aspects of Wikileaks. Roy Greenslade reports on former NOTWer Paul McMullan’s chance encounter with Hugh Grant. Apparently the pair discussed the ethics of phone hacking, when the former tabloid hack gave the actor a lift after his car broke down on the A256 in Kent.

You can find a full stream of aggregated media law news via @medialawUK on Twitter; and Meeja Law tweets go out via @meejalaw. Contact me via @jtownend or jt.townend [at] gmail.com.

If you’re new to Meeja Law, here’s how to follow. There’s now an email subscription here; on Twitter at @meejalaw; links to media law news here at @medialawUK or add the Meeja Law RSS feed here (I’m also @jtownend on Twitter).

Here’s an Xmas ‘Follow Friday’ for some friends of the site (one day early!), who really helped me with ideas, my summer project and other blog content: @PhilipJohn / @journal_local, Journal Local; @inforrm, the Inforrm blog; @jonslattery (blog);  @AdamWestbrook (blog); @dontgetfooled (blog); Connie St Louis, @stlouisc; @jonhew (blog); Matt Buck, @drawnalism; David Banks, @dbanksy; @PaulBradshaw, @helpmeinvestig8; Mark Walker, @scipmark, Brighton & Hove Community Reporters; and @martinjemoore, Media Standards Trust. And many others too… Thank you all!

Anyway, thank you for reading! Happy Christmas etc. and hope to see you back here in the New Year.