Ignorance is no defence, but given that Starmer suggested that a leading QC hadn’t thought about the sophistication of the issues (a charge which the lawyer in question is robustly defending – on Twitter, of course), what hope for the public at large?

I’ve been interested in the idea of public legal education (PLE) for social media users for a while (see my blogger project in 2010, for example) – initially around civil law (defamation, privacy, contempt) and more recently, criminal offences (Malicious Communications Act 1988; Communications Act 2003; Contempt of Court Act 1981).

The court order issue, mentioned on Radio 4 this morning, is the really interesting one for me. In 2010, I wrote about the lack of clarity around blogging and reporting restrictions; the situation hasn’t much improved since then, although people are probably more aware of the risks through increased media discussion.

Jon Harman (@colmmu) is also interested in this area, and has posted some quick thoughts on his Tumblr blog:

On one hand whilst “ignorance” is not a defence, do we have an education system currently capable of raising digital literacy and the laws that relate to it, do we need to do more in public legal education or even state education given that most people do not actively seek to break these laws, they are just unaware? When we had restricted systems of publishing we had mechanisms to filter and check, we had the basis of journalism training wedded to media and publishing laws – but that’s not possible in this new landscape

His suggestion? A legal Siri … Read in full here.

The Jimmy Savile scandal continues to dominate news headlines, with focus on the BBC’s decision to drop its Newsnight film. Reports in the The Times (£), Channel 4, the Independent and elsewhere quote internal emails between the production team.

The CPS has extended its series of roundtables on prosecuting cases involving social media to sport: an event in November will include representatives from the FA, the England and Wales Cricket Board, the British Olympic Association and the Rugby Football Union.

The Attorney General, Dominic Grieve, has vetoed the release of letters written by Prince Charles to government ministers, after the Upper Tribunal found in favour of disclosure on 18 September 2012 (Evans v Information Commissioner [2012] UKUT 313 (AAC)). Nick Cohen comments on the decision in the Observer here.

Read the Law and Media Round Up [22 October 2012] in full on Inforrm’s Blog.