Meeja Law
Media law & ethics for online publishers, collected and written by Judith Townend (@jtownend). Please note that this site is no longer regularly updated.
Disclaimer: This site contains general information only. This site does not contain legal advice. This site is not responsible for the content of external sites. Enquiries should be made to: jt.townend [at] gmail.com.
Monthly Archives: December 2010
Season’s greetings
This blog will take a bit of a break over the Xmas period. It’s still a young blog and I’d appreciate ideas for how to develop it. What kinds of topics would be people like to see covered? Would a … Continue reading
Twilence in court! Judge allows reporters to tweet during Assange hearing
Forgive the poor headline, but worth flagging up that according to Times media reporter Alexi Mostrous, the judge has given him permission to tweet from Westminster magistrates court during Wikileaks editor Julian Assange’s appeal for bail. Mostrous writes on Twitter: … Continue reading
Injunctions and how the media finds out about them
It’s time to re-visit the question of injunctions and how one finds out about them. No centralised database exists and Ministry of Justice plans for one have been shelved, as first revealed here. But an anonymised case last month sheds … Continue reading
How local journalists overturned a Section 39 order
What happens, as a journalist, when you think a court order should be challenged? It’s something I started to look into for a piece on courts transparency earlier this year. Ed Walker, online communities editor at Media Wales (publisher of … Continue reading
Making council meetings more transparent: legal issues?
As reported by Roy Greenslade and Journalism.co.uk, London’s Southwark Council has agreed to allow audio recordings of its meetings, following a request by local news site London SE1. Videoing will require prior consent of the mayor. The move raises two … Continue reading
The myth of buried newspaper corrections?
Do newspapers try to hide their corrections? It’s just a myth that they do, according to the Editors’ Code Committee secretary Ian Beales, speaking about a new amendment to the code (Clause 1 (ii)), which will see editors negotiate the … Continue reading
Notes on media law for the little guy
Yesterday the Brighton and Hove Community Reporters group kindly invited me to speak at their December meeting, which marked the project’s first birthday. I was there to talk about some research I did over the summer, about legal issues for … Continue reading
Video from Reframing Libel Symposium
Last month, as previously reported on this blog, leading lawyers, academics and journalists debated the future shape of libel reform at the Reframing Libel event at City University London. The BBC College of Journalism has kindly made its video footage … Continue reading
Posted in defamation, digital open justice, events, media law
Tagged #reframinglibel, reframing libel, video
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‘Fair comment’ is now ‘honest comment’
A judgment handed down in the Supreme Court today will change the treatment of opinions in defamation cases. The press summary issued by the court [PDF link] explains that the Supreme Court has unanimously allowed an appeal in the Spiller … Continue reading →