Monthly Archives: June 2011

Jon Slattery: Balanced court reports can add to pain of murder victims' families

Guest post by Jon Slattery Torture is how the Sun sums up what the family of Millie Dowler were put through during the trial of Levi Bellfield. The story is aimed at the treatment of the family by defence lawyers … Continue reading

Posted in comment, courts, guest post | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Media law mop up: Early Resolution launch; Bahraini activists jailed; Daily Mail's libel wars

Lots of libel related news this week.Former Times legal manager Alastair Brett and the retired High Court judge Sir Charles Gray have launched their new Early Resolution scheme, as I’ve reported on Inforrm and Index on Censorship. The Daily Mail … Continue reading

Posted in defamation, media law, media law mop-up | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Media law mop up: Facebook contempt; Giggs' phone hacking claim; Broccoli wins libel payout

A juror has become the first person in Britain to be convicted for contempt of court involving the internet, reportedly widely in the press. Meanwhile plenty of libel-related news: a payout for Bond producer Barbara Broccoli, a row between the … Continue reading

Posted in media law, media law mop-up, media law resources, super injunctions | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Balancing rights: Joshua Rozenberg interviews Mr Justice Eady

The new issue of the Index on Censorship magazine proclaims ‘Privacy Is Dead! Long Live Privacy.’ It features Joshua Rozenberg’s interview with Mr Justice Eady. Parts of it echo Eady’s previous speeches (for example, when he opened City University London’s … Continue reading

Posted in defamation, freedom of expression, human rights, journalism, media law, privacy | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Media law mop up: Comment moderation; Operation Weeting; and Goodwin injunction

Phone hacking is back in today’s headlines, while Fred Goodwin’s injunction is the top privacy story. Meanwhile, me, myself and Meeja Law have been writing about other things: a flawed ComRes poll on super injunctions on the CLJJ blog, publicity … Continue reading

Posted in journalism, media ethics, media law mop-up, media law resources, media regulation, phone hacking | Tagged , | 1 Comment

A storm in a brown envelope? Comment moderation issues on the Isle of Wight

Here’s a legal tale from the Isle of Wight, where the local council has taken objection to commenters on the Ventnor blog making references to “brown envelopes”. The Ventnor Blog, which won TalkAboutLocal’s ‘Best Hyperlocal site in the UK’ award … Continue reading

Posted in defamation, media law, press freedom | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Are we sleepwalking into a privacy law?

No, says John Cooper QC from 25 Bedford Row: “it’s simply a development of the law”. Judges, he said at this morning’s Weber Shandwick debate at Gray’s Inn, are interpreting existing law: Articles 8 and 10 and Section 12 of … Continue reading

Posted in press freedom, privacy | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Media law mop up: Counting super injunctions; Twitter battles; and libel in the schoolyard

So, just how many super injunctions and anonymous privacy injunctions are there? Even the Master of the Rolls doesn’t know, but various newspapers have had a stab at guessing.  I’ve produced a table for the Inforrm blog which gives dates, … Continue reading

Posted in media law mop-up | Tagged , | 1 Comment