The week in media law & ethics…
It was a news week that included Alan Johnson’s resignation as shadow chancellor (and PC Rice’s suspension), developments in the Yeates murder case and Tony Blair’s appearance at the Chilcot Inquiry, but Coulson’s resignation as Downing Street director of communications still dominated the media headlines.
- This was the Sun headline that wasn’t, over on Jon Slattery’s blog
- Speculation about secret tapes and news that solicitor Mark Lewis is representing clients in cases against other newspaper titles, over on Guardian.co.uk.
- Channel 4 repeated Peter Oborne’s documentary on phone hacking and it’s available to watch again here.
- Oh, and Gordon Brown is reported to be getting in on the action too.
More on Twitter and the law
- Press Gazette>>Honeymoon killing judge allows tweets http://bit.ly/ehQCqu
- Liverpool Daily Post>> Opinion – tweet with caution
Anyone spotted anything about live blogging in court, which could also be done from a mobile phone?
Public interest discussion
- Inforrm published a piece questioning the public interest defence for newspapers running stories about Laura Johnson’s private life.
- The Guardian has a lively comment piece by (recently ex) Heat editor Sam Delaney in its lifestyle section, including his theory that everyone, including Radio 4 listeners, loves gossip, and why he thinks celebs pursue libel cases:
“Hiring a lawyer and trying to sue someone (anyone) for something (anything!) is like a rite of passage for a young celebrity on the up. It’s what you do once you’ve got a few quid in the bank and have started to take yourself a bit seriously.”
Whistleblowing/leaks
The big leak of the week hasn’t come via Wikileaks. The Guardian and the Al Jazeera English pages on the ‘Palestine Papers’ can be found here:
- http://bit.ly/hEOPeU / http://bit.ly/dYTz3b
- The Guardian has a particularly nice interactive mapping the different docs.
Articles here and here discuss protection of AJE’s source.
Libel
- BBC News>> Ex-MP starts proceedings over ‘expense claim libel’
- LSE MediaPal>>Ignoring domestic abuse?: SLAPPs in the UK http://bit.ly/gR3Nm4
Privacy
- Out-Law.com>>Already-published information ensures anonymity for privacy case subject, rules court: http://bit.ly/eR9hIV
- Inforrm>>Super-injunctions: an update – Keith Mathieson http://bit.ly/h7hA9v
Misc
- HTFP reports how a local football reporter was barred from the press box after a critical story.
- Solicitor Laurence Kaye on reconciling ‘lawyer readable’ with ‘human readable’ terms.
- A journalism student’s shorthand tattoo has caused some lively discussion on HTFP – including questioning of the outline’s accuracy (it’s her name). Anneka Marsh says:
“Because it’s tattooed into me, I know pursuing my career will be the right path, and I’ll always have this outline as a reminder.”
Resources
- Self-regulation/PCC: The Editors Code of Practice Committee has released a new handbook.
Jobs
- Journalism: Briefing Media is looking for an editor/chief analyst for its new Telecommunications site
- Law: Global Witness seeks a senior legal advisor
Events
- Monday 31 January: Freedom of Information in the WikiLeaks Era, with Joshua Rozenberg, Legal Commentator (chair) and David Banisar, Article 19; Andrew Murray, LSE; Mark Stephens, FSI Law and James Leaton Gray, BBC Information Policy and Compliance. British Institute of International and Comparative Law, Charles Clore House, 17 Russell Square, London WC1B 5JP
Tools & tips
I discovered flavors.me this week, which allows you to build and customise a profile homepage very simply and effectively. Find mine here: http://flavors.me/jtownend.
(H-T: Adam Westbrook)
Know about a media law/ethics event? Let me know and I’ll put it in the round up and on a soon-to-be-written events page. 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
PS. I’m thinking of switching this round-up up to a mid week one, since Inforrm does a very comprehensive Monday one. Thoughts?
