To mark Open Justice Week, Meeja Law has finally joined Facebook (here) where you will find links and resources about digital media law. On Twitter, you can follow @meejalaw and for automated updates on media law, @medialawUK. Or I’m @jtownend.

For this week’s media law listings (courts, Leveson Inquiry, Parliament and events) please see my latest round up on the Inforrm blog.

On Wednesday 29 February, lawyers, academics, journalists and others will be gathering at City University London to discuss the way forward for open justice in 2012. Speakers at the Centre for Law, Justice and Journalism’s ‘Justice Wide Open’ seminar include the journalist and activist Heather Brooke, PA Media Lawyer editor Mike Dodd, Hugh Tomlinson QC and Geoffrey Robertson QC.

The programme is embedded below and more details can be found here. It’s fully booked but you can join the waiting list. If you’d like to be kept informed when the publication is released later in the Spring, please drop me an email: judith.townend.1@city.ac.uk.

Happy Open Justice Week!

The legal vacation is not over until Wednesday but there is still plenty to report. Over the winter break Inforrm offered you a review of 2011 and the media law quiz of the year. Entries to the latter will be accepted until 13 January.

The police has provided some of the week’s most noteworthy media law stories. Rebekah Brooks’ former PA was arrested and questioned on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice, as part of the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Weeting.

Elizabeth Filkin’s new report on police relationships with journalists [PDF link] has been praised by the Guardian but labelled “patronising, bordering on offensive” by the Telegraph’s crime correspondent, Mark Hughes. The report makes seven key recommendations to the Metropolitan Police Service to improve communication, transparency and ethical practice. Her comments and suggestions on alcohol consumption and flirting grabbed headlines, but the report covers far wider ground.

• Full round up at this link

But what will 2012 bring? Some items to pencil in the diary:

• Lord Justice Leveson’s report – scheduled to be published in September 2012.
• Joint committee on privacy and injunctions report.
• House of Lords Communications committee report on investigative journalism.
• The progress of the draft defamation bill.
• Developments in the police investigations Weeting, Elveden and Tuleta.
• Civil actions involving phone hacking claims against News International – a trial is due to begin in February 2012.

Read my full review here. Happy new year!

—–

In other news, Paul Bradshaw’s Help Me Investigate has launched its new ‘Networks’ project. Investigations are not hosted in one central place, but on different topic sites, with a spreadsheet directing you to investigations elsewhere.

The project is launching with a focus on 3 areas: Education, Health and Welfare. We’ll be providing tips from practising journalists, updates on ongoing investigations, and useful documents and data.

More here.

We are prevented by parliamentary rules from broadcasting parliamentary proceedings in a comedic or satrical context.

More on the rules for televising Parliament here (HT: Helen Lewis-Hasteley and @fiatpanda).

Super injunctions, remember them? Well, the Guardian has put together some useful data on them here, for download by all. Sources include Inforrm, which has its own table here, Bailii and the excellent RPC Privacy Blog. Lord Neuberger, meanwhile, has issued new practice guidance for interim non-disclosure injunctions and announced an injunction data collection pilot. More on that next week.

Phone hacking

• Press Gazette>>Call for public inquiry in murder case with NoW links
• Media Guardian>>NoW publisher sued for £100,000 over alleged breach of anonymity agreement
• Media Guardian>>NoW publisher sued for £100,000 over alleged breach of anonymity agreement
• Press Gazette>>Mail reviews editorial controls in wake of hacking scandal
• Media Guardian>>Piers Morgan must face the music over hacking claims by Heather Mills
• Evening Standard>> McCartney’s plea to Morgan the merciful
• Press Gazette>>’Stuart Kuttner’ released on bail until later this month
• Press Gazette>>Phone-hack lawyer: ‘Four cases to be filed against Mirror’
• Press Gazette>>Met to probe computer hacking claims
• Inforrm>>News: Culture Media and Sport Committee Publishes Lawyers’ Correspondence
• Inforrm>>News: Leveson Inquiry – details announced and evidence called for
• Private Eye>> Street of Shame – Smoke and Mirrors
• James Doleman>> Hacking, Appeals and Video Tapes [Pt 1]
• AdWeek>> Rupert’s Worst Nightmare Come True?

Privacy injunctions

• Media Guardian>>Superinjunctions, gagging orders and injunctions: the full list | Siobhain Butterworth & Maya Wolfe-Robinson
• Out-Law.com>>Injunction-seekers must usually prior inform media, guidance says
• Media Guardian>>Media ‘must be forewarned’ of celebrity injunctions
• Inforrm>>News: Injunction Guidance Issued

Media ethics

• Brian Cathcart>> The Daily Mail’s review of editorial procedures
• David Allen Green>> The struggle for tabloid content
• Press Gazette>>Indy apology to Saudi prince over ‘no mercy’ claim
• Helen Pidd>> How should journalists talk to survivors of the attacks in Norway?

Media regulation

• MST>> MST response to Baroness Buscombe statement
• PCC>> Release: ‘Press Complaints Commission thanks Baroness Buscombe for her major contribution’
• Guardian>> PCC confirms Baroness Buscombe is to step down

Libel

• Press Gazette>>Sheridan fails in bid to appeal NoW perjury conviction
• Press Gazette>>Tanzanian media tycoon presses on with UK libel bid
• Press Gazette>>Standard apologises over John Yates hacking story
• Media Guardian>>My libel victory underlines the need for journalists to check their facts | Sarah Thornton
• Press Gazette>>Heart doc Wilmshurst wins libel battle by default
• Index on Censorship>> John Moores University withdraws Robert Halfon libel case
• Press Gazette>>MP loses expenses libel appeal versus Evening Standard
• Media Guardian>>How did newspaper lawyers allow editors to publish Jefferies’ libels?
• Media Guardian>>Christopher Jefferies case delivers wake-up call to tabloids| Louis Charalambous
• Tabloid Watch>> ‘Witch hunts and character assassination’
• Media Guardian>>Eight newspapers pay libel damages to Christopher Jefferies
• Inforrm>>Case Law: Thornton v Telegraph Media Group, an offer of amends defence fails – Hugh Tomlinson QC [Updated]
• Media Guardian>>Telegraph Media Group ordered to pay damages over Lynn Barber book review

Contempt of Court

• Press Gazette>>Sun and Mirror to appeal Jefferies contempt convictions
• Press Gazette>>Sun and Daily Mirror guilty in Jo Yeates contempt case

Internet regulation

• Index on Censorship>> Website blocking: gone but not forgotten?
• Out-Law.com>>New website blocking regulations not on the agenda, Government says
• Out-Law.com>>Posing as a different Facebook user can constitute identity theft, US court rules

Press freedom

• David Bartlett>> Liverpool council leader Joe Anderson demands block on Dale Street Blues be lifted – Liverpool Daily Post

Court reporting

• RPC Privacy>> Reporting the family courts – new guide published

Law blogging

• Jack of Kent>>The Five Principles of Legal Blogging
• The Time Blawg>> I Blawg. You Flawg. Period?
• Charon QC>> Lawyers who blog – and lawyers who flawg

Jobs

• Simon Singh is looking for a full-time assistant
• The Media Legal Defence Initiative (MLDI) seeks a chief operations officer
• Professor Lilian Edwards is advertising a PhD studentship on internet law and digital assets

Got a question?

In the autumn, Meeja Law plans to run a series of ‘Media law surgery’ posts and will put online writers’ legal questions to various experts. If you’’ve got a question, please leave it in the comments here, or drop a line tojt.townend@gmail.com.

Want to contribute to Meeja Law?

Meeja Law would love to host guest articles by journalists / lawyers / students – or anyone with an interest in media law and ethics. If you’re interested please get in touch.

You can find a full stream of aggregated media law news via @medialawUK on Twitter; and Meeja Law tweets go out via @meejalaw. Please contact me via @jtownend or jt.townend [at] gmail.com with ideas, tips and event notifications. Relevant journalism and law events here: http://meejalaw.com/events/.

If Phone Hacking the Movie does ever get made, there wouldn’t be room for all the plot threads. In the meantime, here’s a hypothetical trailer:

On Meeja Law, Barry Turner argued why he thinks more regulation won’t prevent the next phone hacking scandal. This post explained the relevance of Operation Motorman. We also delved into courts data, revealing two government contracts controlling the release of judgment and court listing information. A follow up post looked at the Ministry of Justice’s new(ish) site. Finally, I helped the Inforrm blog put together the latest version of its case tables.

Meeja Law is having some server issues this weekend – sorry if you haven’t been able to access content. Everything should be back to normal by Monday morning.

Phone hacking

• Inforrm>>News: The trade in personal data – a new study of police disclosure of personal information
• LSE MediaPal>>’Allo, allo, allo…’: the extent of the police trade in confidential information
• Privacy International>> The UK phone hacking scandal: there’s worse to come – much worse
• Media Guardian>>This phone-hacking inquiry must not lose sight of its goal | Damian Tambini
• Herald Sun>> Whistleblower ready to tell inquiry others also hacked phones
• Telegraph>> Phone hacking: missing News of the World executive Greg Miskiw to fly to UK for police talks
• David Allen Green>> Are the Non-Murdoch media now threatening a select committee member?
• David Allen Green>> Allowing the lawyers to speak
• Out-Law.com>>MP asks Serious Fraud Office to investigate News Corporation allegations
• Guardian>> Phone hacking: Met police to investigate mobile tracking claims
• Press Gazette>>Met phone-hack probe studies Motorman file
• Press Gazette>>Which NI executives were party to cover-up is biggest unresolved question of phone-hacking affair
• Inforrm>>Hacked Off: Response to the Prime Minister’s statement about the forthcoming judicial inquiry
• Charlie Beckett>>Why does Britain have such a popular, political and aggressive tabloid press?
• Media Guardian>>Phone-hacking inquiry extended to include broadcasters and social media
• Media Guardian>>Phone Hacking: did News Int pay Glenn Mulcaire’s fees to gag him?
• David Allen Green>> Mulcaire and confidentiality
• MST>> MST statement on Sir David Bell’s appointment to the Leveson inquiry
• Press Gazette>>Met hacking inquiry ‘could take decade to complete’
• Inforrm>>News: Phone Hacking – Home Affairs Select Committee Report published
• Press Gazette>>Brooks: ‘NoW consistently denied phone-hack claims’
• Charlie Beckett>>James and Rupert Murdoch: humbled but not defeated (so far)
• Press Gazette>>Paul Dacre never ‘countenanced ‘ hacking or blagging
• Inforrm>>News: Phone Hacking “Super Tuesday” – the day of the Parliamentary Committees
• BBC News>> Piers Morgan denies phone-hacking claim
• Press Gazette>>Hacking probe puts PA reporter in the clear
• Press Gazette>>Les Hinton resigns, Rebekah Wade arrested
• Press Gazette>>Met chief resigns amid Sunday Times health club claims

Libel

• Press Gazette>>Yates of Yard signals intention to sue Evening Standard

Press regulation

• MST>> Press reform: a local view
• Iain Overton>> Analysis: Why Press Reform Could Inhibit Investigative Journalism

Privacy

• RPC Privacy>> A “tenuous claim to privacy”: Hutcheson v News Group
• Inforrm>>BBC Radio 4 – the PM “Privacy Commission” Report
• Inforrm>>Case Law: KGM v News Group – The Scoop, the Chef, his Wife and Her Father – Rosalind English

Court reporting

• Inforrm>>‘I should be licensed to be the eyes and ears of the public’, says Benjie Pell – Frances Gibb
• Press Gazette>>Judge gags press after defendants’ prison van escape
• RPC Privacy>> Reporting the Courts: a view on postponement orders

Contempt of Court

• Media Guardian>>Joshua Rozenberg | Newspapers pay high price for ‘accidental’ contempt of court

Freedom of Information

• David Higgerson>> FOI: More from Kirklees Council, where the council leader signs off FOI requests

Got a question?

Meeja Law is planning to run a series of ‘Media law surgery’ posts and will put online writers’ legal questions to various experts. If you’ve got a question, please leave it in the comments here, or drop a line to jt.townend@gmail.com.

Want to contribute to Meeja Law?

Meeja Law would love to host guest articles by journalists / lawyers / students – or anyone with an interest in media law and ethics. If you’re interested please get in touch.

You can find a full stream of aggregated media law news via @medialawUK on Twitter; and Meeja Law tweets go out via @meejalaw. Please contact me via @jtownend or jt.townend [at] gmail.com with ideas, tips and event notifications. Relevant journalism and law events here: http://meejalaw.com/events/.

Policeman turned columnist Andy Hayman complained about his treatment by MPs this week, but you can watch the former Assistant Commissioner of the Met give evidence here to judge for yourselves. One part that stands out is Hayman’s response to Conservative MP Lorraine Fulbrook’s query over whether he had ever received payment from the media. “Good God,” he exclaims.  “Absolutely not. I can’t believe you suggested that”. Simon Hoggart provides an artful sketch here.

Meanwhile, the blogger Guido Fawkes has raised questions about US TV host Piers Morgan’s connection to the scandal, with national newspapers following suit. People searching for stories about this have discovered Meeja Law’s post from April this year, which reported Morgan’s comments on the BBC Radio 4 Media Show – you can read it again here or re-listen here (around 25 mins in).

Hayman’s evidence to MPs:

Phone hacking news

• Press Gazette>>Former NoW deputy editor Neil Wallis arrested
• PR Week>> News Corporation calls in Edelman as hacking crisis deepens
• David Allen Green>> Tom Crone is gone
• Press Gazette>>NI exit for News of the World legal manager Tom Crone
• Press Gazette>>Sun has evidence it did not hack Brown medical records
• Press Gazette>>Brooks and Murdoch invited to appear before MPs
• Press Gazette>>Gordon Brown sick child story came from ‘tip-off’
• Independent>> I’m a hacking victim too, Gordon Brown to say
• Inforrm>>Phone Hacking, Police Corruption and Media Manipulation
• Guardian liveblog>> Ed Miliband asks Cameron why he ignored warnings about Coulson

Phone hacking – public inquiry

• RPC Privacy>> Details of the new inquiry into press regulation and phone-hacking
• Index on Censorship>> UK media inquiries – now is the time for scepticism
• Inforrm>>News: Prime Minister Announces Inquiries led by Lord Justice Leveson

Phone hacking – the BSkyB deal

• Out-Law.com>>News Corp drops BSkyB bid
• BBC News>> Murdoch: the network defeats the hierarchy

Phone hacking – media regulation

• HTFP>> State regulation will harm local press says top media lawyer
• David Banks>>Hackgate and PCC reform – I told you so (sort of)
• Index on Censorship>> News of the World fallout could change Britain’s media culture

Phone hacking – legal issues

• Inforrm>>Opinion: Phone Hacking, Libel and Access to Justice – Steven Heffer
• Inforrm>>Opinion: Was it human rights wot won the phone hacking scandal? – Adam Wagner

And some hacking satire…

Assange appeal

• Press Gazette>>Journalist rapped for taking pic of Assange in court
• Business Week>> Wikileaks Julian Assange fights extradition

Defamation

• BBC News>> Ian Hislop ‘worried’ by plans to limit libel juries

Privacy injunctions

• The First Post>> Whatever became of our super-injunction fury?

Got a question?

Meeja Law is planning to run a series of ‘Media law surgery’ posts and will put online writers’ legal questions to various experts. If you’ve got a question, please leave it in the comments here, or drop a line to jt.townend@gmail.com.

Want to contribute to Meeja Law?

Meeja Law would love to host guest articles by journalists / lawyers / students – or anyone with an interest in media law and ethics. If you’re interested please get in touch.

You can find a full stream of aggregated media law news via @medialawUK on Twitter; and Meeja Law tweets go out via @meejalaw. Please contact me via @jtownend or jt.townend [at] gmail.com with ideas, tips and event notifications. Relevant journalism and law events here: http://meejalaw.com/events/.

Phone hacking – legal issues

• RPC Privacy>> Public inquiries into privacy and press regulation
• panGloss>>The Idiot’s Guide to Why Voicemail Hacking is a Crime
• Press Gazette>>The Times: Phone-hacking as bad as MPs’ expenses
• Press Gazette>>Mulcaire: ‘I didn’t understand I had broken the law’
• The Lawyer>> News International turns to Matrix silk over Met payment claims

Phone hacking – call for public inquiry

• Inforrm>>Hacked Off response to Prime Minister’s statement on phone hacking scandal
• Out-Law.com>>Government announces inquiry into UK press
• Charlie Beckett>>A massive moment for media and politics in Britain
• Inforrm>>Hacked Off launches at the House of Lords – Thais Portilho-Shrimpton
• David Allen Green>> Tabloids and the abuse of power
• Press Gazette>>Cameron: There will be phone-hacking public inquiry
• LSE MediaPal>>Hacked Off? Petition for an independent inquiry into phone hacking scandal
• Inforrm>>Hacked Off: the Campaign for a public inquiry into phone hacking
• MST>> Hacked Off: Campaign for a Public Inquiry into Phone Hacking

Phone hacking – BSkyB deal

• Out-Law.com>>News of the World closure could influence proposed BSkyB takeover, Government says
• Ofcom>> Statement on Fit and Proper
• Bloomberg>> Miliband Calls for News Corp. to Drop BSkyB Bid
• FT>> Lib Dems could back plan to delay BSkyB takeover
• BBC>> BSkyB hit by takeover bid fears

Phone hacking – Arrests and allegations

• Tabloid Watch>> Recommended reading: phone hacking denials
• Sunday Times>> Twelve face jail over hacking (£££)
• Press Gazette>>Former NoW editor Andy Coulson arrested
• Press Gazette>>Met investigating up to 4,000 phone-hack victims
• Charlie Beckett>>News of the World Executives – how did they ‘not know?’ Guest Blog
• Press Gazette>>The Times: Five phone-hack journalists to be arrested
• Press Gazette>>Hacking debate: NoW targeted police investigators
• Press Gazette>>Former NoW editor Coulson ‘paid police for information’
• Press Gazette>>Phone-hacking: 7 July families may have been hacked
• RPC Privacy>> Phone hacking scandal reaches a new plane
• Press Gazette>>Brooks ‘shocked’ by phone-hack claims but won’t resign
• Press Gazette>>Milly Dowler parents to sue over phone-hack claims

Phone hacking – NOTW closure

• Tabloid Watch>> ‘Giving you the inside track’
• David Allen Green>> A Reuters writer gets the law wrong on News of the World
• David Allen Green>> Closing the News of the World makes no legal difference
• Inforrm>>Phone Hacking and the Closure of the “News of the World”
• Index on Censorship>> News of the World: The paper that died of shame?
• Charlie Beckett>>The Boldest PR Move Of Modern Times? Murdoch Closes News of the World
• Daily Mail>> Rebekah Brooks: News of the World staff take a parting shot in crossword
• BBC News>> Social media v the News of The World

Phone hacking – regulation

• Index on Censorship>> Making a courtroom drama out of a media crisis
• Inforrm>>Phone Hacking and the Press: do we now need statutory press regulation?
• Press Gazette>>PCC insists that its work will go on pending review
• Inforrm>>The bonfire of the vanities: the Tabloid Press and the PCC – Tim Lowles
• Press Gazette>>David Cameron sounds death knell for PCC
• Press Gazette>>Ed Miliband: Scrap the Press Complaints Commission
• Out-Law.com>>PCC will review its rules amidst phone hacking scandal
• Index on Censorship>> Don’t forget, it was good journalism that exposed phone hacking
• Press Gazette>>MPs: Phone-hack inquiry should review the PCC
• Index on Censorship>> Britain’s media must start policing itself
• Charlie Beckett>>After the News of the World admit hacking Milly Dowler’s Phone We Need A Media Commission – Not Self-Regulation
• Press Gazette>>PCC chair Buscombe: News International lied to us
• Paul Cockerton>> Any replacement for the Press Complaints Commission must go beyond newspapers

Phone hacking – event

• Charlie Beckett>>Phone-hacking: the public debate: July 13th 6.30pm at LSE

Phone hacking – Guardian coverage

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/phone-hacking
• News of the World axed
• Andy Coulson arrested
• Email deletions investigated at NI
• News of the World closes – as it happened
• Deciphered: NoW closure announcement
• Shock, tears and anger as staff fear a conspiracy
• Colin Myler – ‘an old-fashioned newspaper guy’
• Dan Sabbagh: Murdoch takes the initiative
• Roy Greenslade: Hacks pay the price of hacking
• How hacking allegations derailed Coulson’s career
• Full list of the victims identified so far
• Bereaved families of armed forces targeted
• Missing Milly Dowler’s phone hacked by NoW
• Families of 7/7 victims ‘were targets of hacking’
• Video: News of the World – the denials
• The denials: from Murdoch to the Met
• Brooks: Inconceivable I knew of Dowler hack
• Murdoch, 2010: No evidence of widespread hacking
• Met police refuse to reopen phone-hacking inquiry
• Brooks, 2009: ‘Guardian has misled the public’

Best of the rest (non-phone hacking)

• Inforrm>>Update: Harassment and injunctions: Cheryl Cole – Natalie Peck
• Inforrm>>Harassment and injunctions: Cheryl Cole – Natalie Peck
• Index on Censorship>> Age of insecurity
• Out-Law.com>>FOI requests grow to numbers not seen since laws’ introduction, says Government
• Press Gazette>>Mirror’s Ferdinand story was a ‘gross invasion of privacy’
• RPC Privacy>> Disclosure of documents in privacy litigation
• HTFP>> Libel committee debates importance of ‘reputation’
• Media Guardian>>Can jurors in the internet age avoid being in contempt of court? | Alex Bailin
• Media Guardian>>Joanna Yeates contempt case begins
• Tabloid Watch>> Sun admits to ‘incorrect’ claim in Baby P article
• Press Gazette>>West Ham to take legal action against Sunday Times
• David Higgerson>> The council where they like to say ‘I sue’

Want to contribute to Meeja Law?

Meeja Law would love to host guest articles by journalists / lawyers / students – or anyone with an interest in media law and ethics. If you’re interested please contact jt.townend@gmail.com.

You can find a full stream of aggregated media law news via @medialawUK on Twitter; and Meeja Law tweets go out via @meejalaw.

Please contact me via @jtownend or jt.townend [at] gmail.com with ideas, tips and event notifications. Relevant journalism and law events here: http://meejalaw.com/events/.

Contempt

• Media Guardian>>Facebook juror jailed for eight months
• Media Guardian>>Facebook contempt of court case: transcript of the online chat

Libel

• Press Gazette>>Telegraph wins libel battle over MP expenses story
• Press Gazette>>PCC could be asked to mediate libel claims
• Jon Slattery>> CPBF: ‘Tribunals best way to reform libel laws’
• Media Guardian>>Could the PCC become ‘court of first resort’ for libel claimants?
• Press Gazette>>Bond producer Broccoli wins libel payout from Mail titles
• Media Guardian>>James Bond producer accepts libel payout from Mail titles
• Press Gazette>>Indy brands Bahrain’s libel threat a ‘half-cocked pr stunt’
• Index on Censorship>> Bahrani government to sue the Independent for libel
• Media Guardian>>Can Bahrain’s government sue the Independent for libel? | David Banks
• Media Guardian>>Argus editor accuses council PR of libel

Media regulation

• Guardian>> BBC to apologise on air to Primark for Panorama documentary
• Roy Greenslade>> Why the BBC Trust is wrong to have found against Panorama

Phone hacking

• Press Gazette>>Ex judge to oversee NoW phone-hack compensation fund
• Press Gazette>>Giggs to sue NoW over phone-hack allegations
• Inforrm>>News: Home Affairs Select Committee on Hacking – Phone Company Evidence
• Press Gazette>>Report: Met widens NoW phone-hack investigation
• Inforrm>>News: Phone Hacking, Email Hacking and Blagging – the investigation expands

Privacy injunctions

• Inforrm>>Essay: Sir Stephen Sedley on Superinjunctions in the London Review of Books
• RPC Privacy>> Justice Secretary expresses concern over MPs defying injunctions
• RPC Privacy>> A former judge reflects on privacy injunctions
• Inforrm>>Case Law: Goodwin v NGN – Privacy, Intrusion and Novelty – Mark Thomson
• Press Gazette>>Zac Goldsmith defends taking out super-injunction
• Index on Censorship>> Mr Justice Eady on balancing acts
• Inforrm>>Hiding Behind Anonymity – Lucy Middleton
• Private Eye: The Sun & Free Speech

Copyright

• Out-Law.com>>Company acting over use of newspaper snippets did not have right to sue, says US court

Reporting restrictions

• HTFP>> Youths named after reporter’s court challenge

Freedom of expression

• Jack of Kent>>The unanswered questions for Dyfed Powys Police
• Press Gazette>>Photographer covering mass brawl outside court arrested

Want to contribute to Meeja Law?

Meeja Law would love to host guest articles by journalists / lawyers  / students – or anyone with an interest in media law and ethics. If you’re interested please contact jt.townend@gmail.com.

You can find a full stream of aggregated media law news via @medialawUK on Twitter; and Meeja Law tweets go out via @meejalaw.

Please contact me via @jtownend or jt.townend [at] gmail.com with ideas, tips and event notifications. Relevant journalism and law events here: http://meejalaw.com/events/.

Phone hacking

• Inforrm>>News: Phone Hacking, Email Hacking and Blagging – the investigation expands
• Media Guardian>>Lawyers stifle another attempt to discover Mulcaire’s legal funding
• Index on Censorship>> Endgame at News International
• Press Gazette>>MP: Hacking investigation should probe 2nd detective
• Press Gazette>>Sienna Miller agrees 100k phone-hack settlement

Privacy injunctions

• Press Gazette>>Why judge upheld secret order for ‘private man’ Goodwin
• Media Guardian>>Fred Goodwin told by judge details of his affair were in the public interest
• Media Guardian>>Sun’s public interest claim in Sir Fred Goodwin case rejected
• Press Gazette>>News Group fails to overturn Goodwin injunction
• Press Gazette>>Sex offender mayor fails in press privacy bid
• Media Guardian>>Injunctions are on the way out, instead lawyers need to get media-savvy | Tim Toulmin
• Inforrm>>Public Opinion and Privacy Injunctions: “do you agree that the media should not be gagged by super-injunctions?”
• Press Gazette>>Privacy row footballer Giggs hit by 2nd affair claim
• Press Gazette>>Sunday World names injunction actors
• Inforrm>>The MP and the superinjunction: the strange case of the missing court order
• The Free Speech Blog: Official blog of Index on Censorship » Ten things I’ve learned about injunctions

Wider privacy issues

• Inforrm>>Book Review: “Outrageous Invasions: Celebrities’ Private Lives, Media, and the Law” by Robin D. Barnes – Natalie Peck
• Media Guardian>>Jeremy Hunt and Ken Clarke set out remit for privacy committee
• Media Guardian>>Tomlinson – why Hemming, tweeters and editors are wrong about privacy
• MST>> The many meanings of privacy – Natalie Peck
• openDemocracy>> Privacy, super-injunctions and Twitter: what should we do?

Court of Protection

• Press Gazette>>Father could not have freed autistic son without press
• Inforrm>>Superinjunction Spring: publicity issues in the Court of Protection – Judith Townend

Contempt of court

• Media Guardian>>Twitter users who breach injunctions risk legal action, warns attorney general
• Press Gazette>>Attorney General’s contempt warning for Twitter users

Freedom of expression

• Index on Censorship>> MF Husain: Farewell to a nation’s chronicler

Freedom of information & reporting access

• By @davidhiggerson>> FOI Friday: FIFA costs, secret letters, mystery names and put down down
• Wimbledon Guardian>> Wimbledon MP Stephen Hammond denied access and reporter evicted from Merton Council public meeting at Dundonald Primary School

Press standards

• MST>> Churnalism weekly – Daily Express, Tuesday 7th June
• Press Gazette>>Sun apology and damages to Baby P social worker
• Index on Censorship>> Index on the Big Questions

Copyright

• Out-Law.com>>EU creators need single copyright regime, says EU Commissioner

Data protection

• Out-Law.com>>New law on cookies, data breaches and ICO powers comes into force today
• Out-Law.com>>Data protection watchdogs to probe Facebook about its use of facial recognition technology
• Out-Law.com>>Council promises better data protection after vulnerable adult data loss

Open justice

• Media Guardian>>Should TV cameras be allowed inside UK law courts?

Resource of the week

• The Digital Journalist’s Legal Guide [US]

Want to contribute to Meeja Law?

Meeja Law would love to host guest articles by journalists / lawyers  / students – or anyone with an interest in media law and ethics. If you’re interested please contact jt.townend@gmail.com.

You can find a full stream of aggregated media law news via @medialawUK on Twitter; and Meeja Law tweets go out via @meejalaw.

Please contact me via @jtownend or jt.townend [at] gmail.com with ideas, tips and event notifications. Relevant journalism and law events here: http://meejalaw.com/events/.

Super injunctions… what else?

• Media Guardian>>A matter of will: Privacy injunctions
• TIME>> The Great British Battle Between Privacy and the Press
• IPMediaLaw>>CTB – The Next Chapter : Why is the Superinjunction still in place?
• IPMediaLaw>>A Farewell To Arms – Is Twitter about to make its greatest “Fail” yet and hand over user details to CTB?
• Tugendhat J’s judgment>> CTB v News Group Newspapers Ltd & Anor [2011] EWHC 1334 (QB) (23 May 2011)
• Media Guardian>>There is more to privacy law than injunctions on secrets
• Press Gazette>>Sun and Mirror press on with Ryan Giggs revelations
• Press Gazette>>Ramsay father-in-law loses press gag bid
• Media Guardian>>Were the media safe to name Ryan Giggs?
• HTFP>> PCC: ‘We’d have gagged press over Giggs’
• Press Gazette>>Peta Buscombe: Ryan Giggs should have come to us
• Inforrm>>Case Comment: Goodwin v News Group Newspapers – Edward Craven
• Media Guardian>>Mail accused of flouting Goodwin injunction
• HTFP>> Contempt joins privacy as hot topic
• Press Gazette>>MP John Hemming names injunction-row footballer
• Hansard: Commons debates: Injunctions, 3.31 pm
• Media Guardian>>Sunday Herald editor defends picture of injunction row footballer
• Media Guardian>>Privacy: the high politics of low gossip
• Love and Garbage>> What should CTB have done to protect his position in Scotland?
• Love and Garbage>> Superinjunctions, anonymised injunctions and Scotland

Public v private musings

• NYTimes>> The Gossip Machine, Churning Out Cash
• MST>> Has the value of the public interest test been fatally undermined?
• Index on Censorship>> What next for privacy?
• Kenan Malik>> For privacy. Against privacy laws

Also see Meeja Law’s updating super injunction page defining and tracking recent cases.

Private Eye’s latest issue (left) continues with the super injunction theme, but finds space for phone hacking too. Its quote of the week:

“”I never imagined I would write for the News of the World because I suppose it is like making a deal with the devil, or sleeping with the enemy. But I don’t feel compromised and it has been one of my better decisions.” – Ulrika Jonsson, columnist on the News of the World from 2003-07, speaking in 2005. She is now suing rhe paper for hacking into her mobile phone.”

Phone hacking

• Inforrm>>Case Law: R (Bryant) v Commissioner of Police: Police may have duty to inform victims of phone hacking – Adam Wagner
• Out-Law.com>>High Court allows judicial review into Met handling of phone hacking case
• Guardian>> Phone hacking: journalist’s lawsuit against NoW revives ‘spying’ claims

Sorry, did you say sorry?

• Tabloid Watch>> An apology from the Mail to Dr Daphne Austin, published on 20 May

Blogging lawyers

• UK Human Rights Blog: Must lawyers blog and tweet?
• Halsbury’s Law Exchange » Journalists and court hearings

Media law tweet of the week

RT @caitlinmoran: One thing that would improve the press immensely is a PCC ruling that apologies take up equal space to the original story.

Media law quote of the week

Mr Justice Eady, giving judgment in CTB v News Group Newspapers Ltd & Anor [2011] EWHC 1326 (QB):

Mr Spearman raises the alternative argument, verging on the bathetic, that The Sun should at least be allowed to tell the Claimant’s wife what it knows, or thinks it knows. This is a difficult one to follow. NGN is a media group legitimately interested in making profits from communicating to the world at large … It surely does not aspire to the role of social worker or “relationship counsellor“….

You can find a full stream of aggregated media law news via @medialawUK on Twitter; and Meeja Law tweets go out via @meejalaw.

Please contact me via @jtownend or jt.townend [at] gmail.com with ideas, tips and event notifications. Relevant journalism and law events here: http://meejalaw.com/events/.

Phone hacking

Privacy

• Media Guardian>>Have super-injunctions killed the kiss’n'tell?
• Out-Law.com>>Children’s rights should outweigh almost all cases of public interest in newspaper stories, Court of Appeal says
• Media Guardian>>What are these super-injunctions all about
• RPC Privacy>> Workplace affairs are private – especially if one half of the couple has children
• Press Gazette>>Appeal court upholds News of the World privacy gag
• Inforrm>>Case Law: ETK v News Group Newspapers “Privacy Injunctions and Children” – Edward Craven
• Media Guardian>>New breed of gagging order could send journalists to jail, MP claims
• Media Guardian>>Should newspapers pay sex workers to dish the dirt on their clients?
• London Evening Standard >> Law is badly in need of reform as celebrities hide secrets – Roy Greenslade
• Telegraph>> New gagging orders are ‘a recipe for hiding injustice
• One Brick Court>> ETK V News Group Newspapers Ltd [2011] EWCA Civ 439
• Head of Legal>> ZAM v CFW & TFW: has John Hemming changed his mind?
• Left Food Forward>> Press freedom in peril: Another celeb injunction, and now a contra mundum

Defamation

• Index on Censorship>> US company suing cardiologist for libel goes out of business
• Inforrm>>Clift v Slough Borough Council – Supreme Court refuses permission to appeal
• One Brick Court>> Baturina v Times Newspapers Ltd [2011] EWCA Civ 308
• One Brick Court>> Cook v Telegraph Media Group Ltd [2011] EWHC 763 (QB)

Press regulation

• Media Guardian>>Michael Grade joins the PCC

Open justice

• Press Gazette>>Secret doctors’ courts move a ‘disaster’ for patients

Police & papers

• Press Gazette>>Police to look at ‘historic claims’ of tabloid payments
• Former reporter jailed for leaking police information

Twitter joke trial

• Jack of Kent>>Twitter Joke Trial: the case stated by Doncaster Crown Court

Copyright

• BJP>> Daily Mail accused of lifting Flickr image

Newsroom disputes

• Media Guardian>> Reuters fires bureau chief over online chatroom remark
• Kyiv Post>> Joint statement by Kyiv Post journalists and owner Mohammad Zahoor
• Journalism.co.uk>> Kyiv Post staff strike after editor’s departure

Related judgments

• ETK v News Group Newspapers Ltd. [2011] EWCA Civ 439 (19 April 2011)
• OPQ v BJM & Anor [2011] EWHC 1059 (QB) (20 April 2011)
• Police of the Metropolis & Anoir v Times Newspapers Ltd & Anor [2011] EWHC 776 (QB) (18 April 2011)
• Henry v News Group Newspapers Ltd (Rev 1) [2011] EWHC 1058 (QB) (20 April 2011)

Resource of the week

It’s good to see that the newly designed Hold the Front Page site has a specific media law section now, which makes it easier follow their stories by RSS.

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 jt.townend [at] gmail.com. Relevant journalism and law events here: http://meejalaw.com/events/.

The panel featured David Allen Green (Jack of Kent / New Statesman), Carl Gardner (Head of Legal) and Adam Wagner (UK Human Rights Blog), and was chaired by Catrin Griffiths, editor of The Lawyer.

It was interesting for me, as a relative newcomer on the ‘legal blog’ scene – and as someone with a journalism, rather than legal, background (I currently float somewhere in between).

While I may have arrived late to the legal blog, or heaven forbid, ‘blawg’ party, it turns out that many lawyers are only really discovering the fun of social media now (they’re rather more cautious than journalists – there’s a bit more at stake, I suspect).

Fortunately there wasn’t too much of the sycophantic ‘thanks for the follow!’ type stuff, and it was good to hear David Allen Green dismiss corporate social media ‘strategies’.

We did touch on legal blogging’s future, advertising, marketing etc. but it wasn’t too painful. Important points were raised by the audience. Hugh Tomlinson QC from Matrix talked about the demise of the newspaper legal correspondent; Siobhain Butterworth provided useful insight into the Guardian’s comment moderation process; and I also enjoyed the discussion around anonymity – and the risk of blogging as a student after a training contract.

It was only the start of the conversation, however. There are very serious issues to consider, as lawyers increasingly take to social media and online activity. Ethics and regulation, for example…

The value of legal blogging, in my view, is that it plugs a gap between the ‘locked up’ legal data behind enormous paywalled businesses and the ordinary people outside the profession.

Blogs enable us to find simple explanations and examples of case law that would previously be secreted internally.

Locked up legal data is one of my bugbears and something I’d like addressed. Why is so much stuff inaccessible until you get expensive subscriptions?

Everyone waxes lyrical about Bailii (it’s very useful, I agree) but that’s partly because there’s a dearth of other open, useable databases for UK law.

I hope that some of the legal bloggers will join in the conversation about how to free more of our courts data. I’m hoping to talk to the Ministry of Justice about this soon.

Thoughts and suggestions welcomed, either by email (jt.townend@gmail.com) or below. Thank you. And thank you One Crown Office Row for the event!

Also, the Centre for Law, Justice and Journalism Twitter account (@citycljj), Facebook page and blog is up and running. More content on those sites soon…

Here’s a run-down of some of the major media law and ethics stories this week, so far (with a focus on the UK).

Court reporting

• Press Gazette>>Security guard stops Mirror’s Penman entering court
• Press Gazette>>Supreme Court allows reporters to use Twitter
• Media Guardian>>The Twitter era of court reporting is here, despite the risk of prejudice (Joshua Rozenberg)
• The Sheridan Trial Blog, the last post

Freedom of Information

• Inforrm>>Revisited and Revised: Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Information (Three parts) – Hugh Tomlinson QC. Part One / Part Two / Part Three

Libel

• Inforrm>>News: Libel in the Supreme Court [Revised]
• Inforrm>>Flood v Times Newspapers – the Appeal Documents
• Press Gazette>>New twist in Lynn Barber’s Telegraph review libel battle
• Inforrm>>Case Law: Wallis v Meredith – another libel strike out – Sara Mansoori

International libel

• Index on Censorship>>Venezuelan journalist prosecuted for criminal libel

Contempt of Court

• Press Gazette>>Pre-charge anonymity bill dropped

Phone hacking

• Inforrm>>News: Metropolitan Police phone hacking update and more victims
• Inforrm>>News: Home Affairs Select Committee Publishes Phone Hacking Evidence
• Love and Garbage>> Observer and Operation Motorman again – more questions

Self-regulation

• Out-Law.com>>Newspaper’s use of Twitter posts was legitimate, rules watchdog
• The Media Blog>> Of course Twitter’s public… but is it newsworthy?
• OnlineJournalismBlog>> How private is a tweet?
• OnlineJournalismBlog>> PCC gets SEO in new ruling on online corrections

Miscellaneous

• Guardian>> INM threatens to sue Irish Mail on Sunday over spoof cover

Murphy / Sky

The City Law School Research blog carnival on the pub landlady’s legal battle over broadcasting rights:

• Can broadcasting copyrights hinder the internal market?
• More commentary on the AG’s opinion
• Communication to the Public in Murphy
• Football economics
• Transatlantic lessons from the EU challenge to exclusive broadcast territories
• Murphy – Price Discrimination in the Internal Market
• Summary of Advocate General’s Opinion
• Opinion Released: Competition before Copyright
• Beer, and Football on TV

Tips & research tools

Try Yahoo alerts to create an email newsletter from any webpage with an RSS feed.

Discussion

Over on LinkedIn, we’ve been considering the future of a UK legal support network for online publishers. Interested? Drop me a line, or/and join the group.

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 (admittedly, I’ve said that for a few weeks now). 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 jt.townend [at] gmail.com.

Libel

• Inforrm>>Case Law: Farrall v Kordowski – assessment of libel damages http://bit.ly/h1OdcC
• LSE MediaPal>>’Ordinary person’ vs ‘the Press’: the unmentioned ‘other’ problem with libel law http://bit.ly/ielK6G
• Press Gazette>>Victory in sight for Hardeep Singh in libel tourism battle:  http://bit.ly/hTIJKU
• Inforrm>>News: Hardeep Singh libel claim, appeal abandoned? http://bit.ly/eYQXxs

Contempt of court

• Media Guardian>>Daily Mail and Sun accused of contempt over online photos http://bit.ly/gqRkbq

Privacy

• Inforrm>>Reporting Privacy: JIH “Privacy Madness”? – Mark Thomson: http://bit.ly/g0tohy
• Press Gazette>>Sportsman wins media gagging order appeal: http://bit.ly/eeRv7r
• Inforrm>>Case Law: JIH v News Group Newspapers, anonymity regained – Edward Craven: http://bit.ly/hA1KtI

Costs

• Out-Law.com>>Jackson slams piecemeal civil litigation funding proposals: http://bit.ly/epVmLp

Injunctions (misc)

• Inforrm>>News: Climate change sceptic fails in BBC injunction application http://bit.ly/ekerzx
• Press Gazette>>BBC sees off climate-change film legal challenge:  http://bit.ly/ifFwIU

FoI / Wikileaks

• Inforrm>>News: ‘Freedom of Information in the Wikileaks Era’ http://bit.ly/hUuOh9
• Andrew Murray’s full talk from Monday’s Wikileaks event at BICCL http://bit.ly/gIjMZh
• Greg Mitchell>> “Cablegate” to Date: A Unique List of What’s Been Revealed

Phone hacking

• Press Gazette>>PCC forms new phone-hack working group http://bit.ly/dKFN8X
• Inforrm>>Opinion: “The PCC’s working group on phone hacking – too little too late” – Martin Moore: http://bit.ly/gjyWlt

Crime maps

• Out-Law.com>>ICO approves crime maps but warns of possible privacy dangers: http://bit.ly/hrE9QJ
• http://www.police.uk/

Media / advertising regulation

• IPMediaLaw>>Comment Is Free-OFT crackdown on Celebrity Twitter Endorsements: http://bit.ly/heJA8B

Court reporting

• Press Gazette>>MPs proposes bill on pre-conviction crime anonymity  http://bit.ly/exbFPS
• Media Guardian>>MPs want to ban the naming of suspects to avoid media feeding frenzies: http://bit.ly/fTmHRu
• Press Gazette>>Court of Appeal quashes murder case reporting ban http://bit.ly/gEsk13
• Alison Gow>> Court orders that make court reporting redundant: http://bit.ly/gdgYge
• UK Human Rights Blog>> Supreme Court welcomes Tweeters
• The Register>> UK’s Supreme Court greenlights Twitter usage

One to mull over:

• One woman’s account of her defamation action against the Daily Mail. Also see comments on Roy Greenslade’s blog.

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 jt.townend [at] gmail.com.

Specialists such as Professor Hany Farid and Professor Anthony TS Ho are honing techniques to analyse and detect digital manipulation of photographs.

It struck me that these methods would be very relevant for media regulation systems and legal cases (and in the newsroom, if less specialised techniques were developed).

Does anyone know of any examples where photo forensic techniques have been used like this?

Further reading:

• Insite blog
• Scientific American
• Reuters’ Handbook of Journalism, Photoshop guidelines

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 jt.townend [at] gmail.com.

PS. I’m thinking of switching this round-up up to a mid week one, since Inforrm does a very comprehensive Monday one. Thoughts?

• Press release here [PDF]
• More info on the Code Committee’s site.
• Download full codebook at this link [PDF].

Lawyers talk libel

The libel reform event of the week took place at Gray’s Inn Hall last Tuesday, with a focus on the ‘public’. Tweets from the event can be replayed here and a thorough review by the Media Standards Trust’s Gavin Freeguard can be found here. My own contribution, following the event, was this piece for the MST and Inforrm: ‘We’re all publishers now’.

Twittering lawyers

• “Law firms’ poor use of Twitter risks ‘damaging their brand’” reports The Law Gazette: http://bit.ly/gu9qxM. To download the full report you have to register with the report’s author, a digital communications agency called Intendance.
• [Update]: Quite a debate was sparked by this report, it would seem. See the Lawyer’s piece & comments here and Intendance’s response here.

Super injunctions & pre-notification

• Max Mosley was back in European court to argue his case for prior notification, a notion which horrifies many press commentators. Here’s Roy Greenslade’s take in the Evening Standard.

• Last Thursday the ITV Tonight programme discussed super injunctions and privacy, and Max Mosley was among the interviewees. While some of the narration was a little simplistic (the programme blurb says it will ask “whether they [SIs] protect privacy or limit press freedom”), it was a thoughtful look at the issue and even included a round-the-breakfast-table with members of the actual public. Mosley talked about his experience with News of the World:

“Whatever they [newspapers] may say when they try to justify these things by saying that this is in the public interest, the truth is they do it to sell newspapers and they’re prepared to inflict any degree of suffering or unpleasantness on an individual in order to sell a few of their newspapers. So they quite often ruin people’s lives just to sell newspapers.”

Self-regulation

The Express & Daily Star are no longer covered by the PCC. This will not affect the budget for 2011, the PCC told The Media Standards Trust, after the organisation raised several questions about Northern & Shell’s departure from the body.

Out-law is hiring

Out-law.com, an invaluable resource for digital media law updates and explanations, has a new editor. Outgoing editor Struan Robertson bid farewell to Outlaw and Pinsent Masons last week to take up a new position at Google. Matthew Magee will be the new editor but vacancies are advertised for a new Out-Law lawyer and journalist.

Phone hacking

On it goes: with more law suits expected and the DPP ordering a review of police evidence. Meanwhile, the Guardian asks just who is paying for Glenn Mulcaire’s legal battle. At the time of writing, Cameron is refusing to deny (or confirm) reports that Andy Coulson offered his resignation to the PM.

Tips & tools

Last week I mentioned new site Quora, as a way of asking questions and finding answers in your subject area. This week I’ve been getting to grips with two new bookmarking services: Diigo, as an alternative to Delicious, and Zotero for storing academic references. I’m finding both, the latter particularly, very well-designed and time efficient.

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 jt.townend [at] gmail.com.

A lot to mop up on this bank holiday morning following the Xmas/NY break. The hot ML news issue is Contempt of Court, as newspapers and tweeters push the boundaries with reports and commentary on the Joanna Yeates murder case (I suspect many of the people I follow on Twitter aren’t typical because they were all worrying about the CoC issues and warning their followers to take care). The pieces to read:

• Media Guardian>>Yeates murder: Attorney General warns press to beware of contempt http://bit.ly/hKEehy
• Media Guardian>>Joanna Yeates murder case puts media coverage in the spotlight http://bit.ly/h5Nuak
• David Banks>>Molecular chemistry, contempt of court and the reporting of the Joanna Yeates case http://bit.ly/ffjRtL
• Inforrm>>Media Responsibility and Chris Jeffries http://bit.ly/dGwb7q
• Enemies of Reason>> Chris Jeffries and trial by media http://bit.ly/ftNSFF

Libel

• Jack of Kent, aka David Allen Green, has launched a defamation series on his blog. The first post looks at the purpose of defamation law.
• The Clift v Slough Borough Council case discussed in Heather Brooke’s book, The Silent State, featured on the 5RB site, following a judgment in the Court of Appeal in favour of the claimant, released on 21st December. 5RB reported: “In a significant decision for all public authorities, it was held that a public authority should only be entitled to rely on the defence of qualified privilege  in respect of a defamatory publication if it the publication was consistent with its public law duties.” Further commentary by lawyer Francis Davey on Nearly Legal at this link.

Meanwhile the Wikileaks and phone hacking stories rumble on. Follow @WLLegal, for links to articles about the legal aspects of Wikileaks. Roy Greenslade reports on former NOTWer Paul McMullan’s chance encounter with Hugh Grant. Apparently the pair discussed the ethics of phone hacking, when the former tabloid hack gave the actor a lift after his car broke down on the A256 in Kent.

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 jt.townend [at] gmail.com.

I kept the talk pretty brief (they’d already had to wait 50 mins for me to make it through the snow from north London) but we had a lively Q&A afterwards, with some really interesting experiences thrown into the mix. The nice thing about the group is the diversity of participants’ professional backgrounds, either in journalism or other fields.

I spoke with the big disclaimer that I’m not actually a lawyer, and speak as a blogger/researcher, but hope I was able to give a useful introduction to some of the issues that bloggers or social media users face when it comes to media law.

• Andrew Brightwell has some liveblogged notes here
• My survey project can be found on this page
• The ‘investigation’ continues on Help Me Investigate here
• Or on LinkedIn

Here are my top 5 media law resources for getting your head around the issues (this is an entry-level list):

• McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists, 20th Edition
• David Price guide to media law (free and online!)
• Guardian.co.uk media law news
• BBC College of Journalism legal guide
• HMCS legal glossary

For media law news by lawyers I recommend Out-Law.com and the Inforrm blog. One final additional link to look at: Sense About Science’s new guide for bloggers, uploaded here.

My presentation is on Slideshare, or below:

• [PDF link to leaflet here]

It followed Sense About Science’s survey into online writers and the impact of libel law. I also did some research into blogging and the law over the summer – the results of which you can read here.

It should be noted that the organisation says that the new leaflet is certainly not a “substitute for legal advice, but it does provide information which other bloggers and writers who have been through the experience say they wished they had known at the outset”.

I have uploaded the leaflet onto Scribd, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK England and Wales licence.

The City Law School has completed a major redesign of its ‘Learnmore’ website, the skills wiki element of the School’s own groundbreaking law portal for students, Lawbore. The new-look site seeks to engage students by using fun visual learning resources and focuses on six core areas – mooting, research, writing, exams, careers and a ‘newbies’ section for beginners – to support students across the full range of professional and academic programmes offered by the School.

You can find the site, the brainchild of Emily Allbon, Law Librarian at the City Law School, and barrister and lecturer Sanmeet Kaur, at: http://learnmore.lawbore.net/

To moderate or not to moderate? How best to use material from social network sites? How to manage a rolling crime story, especially once proceedings become active?

With all those grey areas around digital media law, I was surprised by the results of my survey of 71 small publishers (including many local news writers) this summer, which shows that over half (54%) felt happy with the legal resources available to them.

Image: Matt Hamm on Flickr.

But there was a difference of opinion between those who had encountered legal trouble in the last two years and those who hadn’t.

Of the 19 publishers who had been involved in a legal dispute, 68% felt there were not enough resources. And many of the more satisfied respondents admitted that they might feel differently if they were personally embroiled in a situation.

Maybe it’s the case that you feel safe till it happens to you…

This tutorial by the OnlineJournalismBlog’s Paul Bradshaw, published on the BBC College of Journalism website in November last year, was a pleasant find too. It’s a simple rundown of the media law bloggers and journalists need to know (for starters):