The noise around super injunctions is getting louder, especially in tabloid quarters. But, as Alan Rusbridger said this week in his Anthony Sampson speech, the newspapers’ approach to the public interest is often inconsistent: “We sometimes send confusing signals about what we really care about.”
We’d been missing our normal PopBitch fix of late; it turned out the weekly email had been going to the spam folder. Had the injuncters got to Gmail too? Anyway, this week’s update is entitled: “Superinjunction revealed!” That, rather disappointingly, turns out to be the name of PopBitch’s racehorse. The celebrity gossip newsletter also commented, somewhat cynically:
Could it be true that the tabloids are not entirely unhappy with the latest wave of injunctions? We’re told that the red-tops are busy dusting off their weakest celeb kiss ‘n’ tells in the hope that the celebs in question take out a gagging order. It would make sense. An outraged “Another famous married man tries to silence us” piece is way more powerful at the moment than a story on the banal sexual shenanigans of some footballer you’ve probably never heard of.
Most bizarre story placing of the week should go to Metro, which deemed an article about TwitPic changing its copyright rules worthy of the front page slot… Twitter, or copyright small print, really isn’t that interesting.
And bad legal tip of the week goes to the Independent’s media diary: ‘Mosley tipped for court victory’.
Now, on with the rest of the UK media law news from the last seven days…
Contempt of court
- Press Gazette>>Contempt proceedings granted against Sun and Mirror
- Media Guardian>>Better late than never – the attorney general finally does his job
- Media Guardian>>Joanna Yeates trial: contempt action approved by high court
Super injunctions (definitions and chronology here)
- Inforrm>>Opinion: “Privacy, the Press, Press regulation and super-injunctions: more heat than light” – Chris Pounder
- Inforrm>>Opinion: “More lead in the media pencil…” – Amber Melville-Brown
- Out-Law.com>>Twitter user is in contempt of court if allegations published about celebrity super-injunctions are true, expert says
- Inforrm>>What now for contemptuous tweeting and media innuendo in the privacy injunction saga? – Judith Townend
- David Allen Green>> Thinking clearly about superinjunctions
- IPMediaLaw>>Tweet And Be Damned
- Macolm Coles>> Super injunction names: 6 national newspaper stories that flouted the injunction to reveal all
- Malcolm Coles>> Twitter and super injunctions: no one need pack their toothbrush
- FT.com: Twitter account challenges super-injunctions
- Beehive City>> Super-injunctions fail in 140 characters as newspapers take Twitter’s lead
- Natalie Peck>> Can superinjunctions survive the internet?
- David Banks>> Twitter-tattle about celebrity sex lives is little to celebrate
- Head of Legal>> Breaching so-called “superinjunctions” on Twitter
- Garrulous Law>> Superinjunctions
- Telegraph>> Twitter and super-injunctions: legal questions answered
- NYTimes>> Prominent Britons Use ‘Super Injunctions’ to Shush Scandals in Papers
Privacy
- Out-Law.com>>Privacy legislation may be needed, says culture minister
- Inforrm>>News: Guardian editor on the tangle of libel, privacy, phone hacking and self-regulation – Judith Townend
- Out-Law.com>>Facebook users’ personal information exposed by security flaw, say researchers
- Media Guardian>>Who will draw the line between freedom of speech and privacy? | Owen Bowcott
Mosley decision in Europe
- Index on Censorship>> Max Mosley: Sex, secrets and super-injunctions
- David Allen Green>> What the Mosley privacy decision really means
- Media Guardian>>Zac Goldsmith calls for privacy law
- Charlie Beckett>>The messy reality of law, privacy and media freedom
- Inforrm>>Case Law: Mosley v United Kingdom: pre-notification rejected by Strasbourg – Hugh Tomlinson QC
- Media Guardian>>European court of human rights judgment on Max Mosley: conclusion
- Media Guardian>>Mosley hasn’t finished with the News of the World yet…
- Media Guardian>>Max Mosley judgment in full
- HTFP>> Mosley’s defeat vital for regional press
- Richard Peppiatt>> Britain’s freedoms weren’t at risk in the Max Mosley case
- Law Think>> Mosley loses, but this does not mean it’s a victory for the press
Wikileaks
- Media Guardian>>WikiLeaks, get out of the gagging game | James Ball
- David Allen Green>> The £12m question: how WikiLeaks gags its own staff
Defamation
- Media Guardian>>Roman Abramovich libel case due in court next week
- Media Guardian>>Removing libel juries would be dangerous, warns newspaper industry
- Press Gazette>>Rusbridger: UK legal system punishes decent journalists
- Media Guardian>>Alan Rusbridger: The long, slow road to libel reform
- Legal Week>> The death of libel – is the Defamation Bill the beginning of the end for libel lawyers?
Press standards
- Press Gazette>>Lebedev: Act responsibly to prevent press crackdown
- Press Gazette>>Baby P report: social work journalism ‘one-dimensional’
- Out-Law.com>>Press Complaints Commission rules Telegraph’s ‘fishing expedition’ unacceptable
- MST>> Welcome PCC precedent unlikely to have wider impact
- Press Gazette>>Middletons in PCC complaint against four newspapers
- Journalism.co.uk>> Rusbridger: If we want a PCC that is effective we will all have to pay more
- New Statesman>> The Telegraph has been told off. Big deal . . .
- The Guardian>> Journalist who faked celebrity scoops stars in film about his life and lies
Data protection
Press freedom
- Index on Censorship>> Testing academic freedom
- Press Gazette>>Call for end to secret police misconduct hearings
Re
aders of last week’s round up will be glad to know the Mirror story about Gabby Logan not having a super injunction is now correctly illustrated with a picture of her, and not a local election hopeful.
Finally, a little Royal hypocrisy for you at the Ministry of Truth.
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 . Relevant journalism and law events here: https://meejalaw.com/events/.
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