Latest by Keith Mathieson
Take 10 - 20 May 2022
Welcome to RPC's Media and Communications law update for media lawyers. This month's digest reports on key media developments and the latest cases.
Read moreTake 10 - May 2022
Welcome to RPC's Media and Communications law update for media lawyers. This month's digest reports on key media developments and the latest cases.
Read moreTake 10 #21
Welcome to RPC's media and communications law update. This issue reports on key media developments and the latest cases.
Read moreWhen can publishing newspaper articles amount to harassment?
The High Court has struck out part of a harassment claim against the publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail Online. Unless the Judge's order is successfully appealed, the remaining harassment claim will proceed to trial.
Read moreHow to get Google to remove outdated links to your personal data
Google has today announced how it intends to deal with the European Court's judgment in the Google Spain case[1].
Read moreA Chinese lesson for private investigators
Those engaged in the investigation business – whether sniffing out personal or corporate intelligence – are well aware of the need to comply with laws that protect personal information.
Read moreNo basis for murderer's anonymity and an alert from the bench
Four media groups[1] have successfully challenged an anonymity order and related reporting restrictions made in the course of judicial review proceedings brought by the notorious murderer, David McGreavy.
Read moreNo breach of privacy in publication of information that child's father is a prominent politician
The Court of Appeal has upheld a High Court judgment that disclosures in the Daily Mail about a child's paternity did not infringe the child's rights of privacy.
Read moreCan schools take pupils' fingerprints?
The Times reported last week that parents at an independent school in north London had protested when fingerprints were allegedly taken from pupils without consent with a view to the fingerprints being used for the automated lunch payment system.
Read moreUK/EU conflict over the 'right to be forgotten'
The Guardian is reporting today that Britain wants to opt out of the 'right to be forgotten', the term applied to article 17 of the Data Protection Regulation which is intended to facilitate the deletion of personal data on request whether or not the data is incomplete or incorrect.
Read moreDo we really value our privacy?
How much do we really care about our personal privacy? Research suggests less than we might like to think.
Read moreUK referred to ECJ over internet privacy
On 30 September 2010 the European Commission announced that it referred the UK to the European Court of Justice for its alleged failure to implement EU laws on the confidentiality of electronic communications such as emails or internet browsing.
Read morePrince Harry – has the Sun got it right?
This blog noted a couple of days ago that clause 3 of the PCC Code requires editors to justify intrusions into an individual’s private life without consent.
Read moreA former editor’s view on the naked Royal
There’s an interesting view on the naked pictures of Prince Harry from a former tabloid editor.
Read moreMP’s partner loses privacy and harassment case against newspaper publisher
Carina Trimingham has lost her privacy and harassment case against the publishers of the Daily Mail.
Read moreWhat’s really wrong with pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge shopping?
The celebrity magazine Heat has published the following apology:
Read moreWhen can you sue under a disguised name?
In what circumstances can a claimant in civil litigation commence proceedings under a pseudonym?
Read moreJudgment awaited in Trimingham harassment case
Carina Trimingham's privacy and harassment case against Associated Newspapers was heard by Mr Justice Tugendhat in the High Court last week. Judgment has been reserved.
Read moreParliamentary committee reports on privacy
The Joint Committee on Privacy and Injunctions has reported.
Read moreAccess to Documents in Criminal Proceedings – Guardian Challenge Secures Change
The Court of Appeal has ruled that where documents have been placed before a judge and referred to in the course of open proceedings, the default position should be that access should be permitted on the open justice principle.
Read moreGiggs' claim for privacy damages is struck out
Ryan Giggs has lost his claim for damages against News Group Newspapers ("NGN").
Read moreCabinet minister's 17-year-old son gets privacy injunction but not anonymity
The son of Caroline Spelman, the Environment Secretary, has obtained an injunction against the publishers of the Daily Star Sunday.
Read moreStrasbourg Rulings on Two Personal Privacy Claims
The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights yesterday handed down its much anticipated decisions in the important privacy cases Axel Springer and von Hannover.
Read moreShould Demi Moore's emergency call have been kept private?
When the actress Demi Moore needed emergency medical care at her home in Los Angeles last week, her friend called 911.
Read moreDamages for unauthorised access to medical records
A judge has awarded £12,500 to a man whose pre-existing personality disorder was exacerbated after his partner accessed his medical records and challenged him about his mental illness.
Read moreOnline privacy rights strengthened by EU data protection reform
The EU has proposed important reforms to data protection laws. The reforms have two aims: increased online privacy rights and boosting the digital economy by removing or easing some unnecessary administrative burdens.
Read moreNew Injunction Guidance
We have previously reported on the controversy surrounding the number and effect of privacy injunctions
Read moreGuardian beefs up its privacy code
Guardian News & Media, owner of the Guardian and Observer, has revised its internal editorial guidelines and beefed up the sections that protect privacy.
Read moreAutomatic numberplate recognition: is it legal?
A report in the Guardian last week reminds readers of the strong likelihood that local police forces have tracked their movements with the use of automatic numberplate recognition (ANPR).
Read moreReporting the family courts - new guide published
A valuable guide has just been published which sets out the law governing access to, and reporting of, the family courts.
Read moreA "tenuous claim to privacy": Hutcheson v News Group
Can you expect to keep a second family private? That was the ambitious hope of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay's father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson.
Read moreDetails of the new inquiry into press regulation and phone-hacking
It had been thought that the Prime Minister had pledged to set up two separate inquiries: one into phone-hacking and one into press regulation more generally.
Read morePublic inquiries into privacy and press regulation
BBC Radio 4's PM programme's 'Privacy Commission' has finished hearing evidence and will presumably be publishing its report shortly.
Read morePhone hacking scandal reaches a new plane
If, as seems likely, it proves true that the News of the World did indeed hack into the voicemail messages of the abducted teenager Milly Dowler, the phone hacking saga moves onto an entirely new plane.
Read moreDisclosure of documents in privacy litigation
What documents is a claimant entitled to demand from a media defendant in a privacy case?
Read moreJustice Secretary expresses concern over MPs defying injunctions
The Times has today reported that the Justice Secretary Ken Clarke yesterday told the Joint Committee on the Defamation Bill that he was concerned about the growing habit of using parliamentary privilege to defy court gagging orders.
Read moreA former judge reflects on privacy injunctions
Mr Justice Eady's interview last month by Joshua Rosenberg -
Read moreA digest of recent news (1) - UK judgments
For one reason and another, the blog has been unable to report on much of the recent news. This entry is an attempt to remedy the situation. Normal service should be resumed shortly.
Read moreAre privacy injunctions too restrictive?
Has privacy law gone too far? It’s not just the editor of the Daily Mail who thinks so.
Read moreThe effect of privacy injunctions on third parties
In general, an injunction made against a defendant does not affect a third party.
Read moreWorkplace affairs are private - especially if one half of the couple has children
The Court of Appeal's judgment in ETK v News Group [2011] EWCA Civ 439 has prompted gasps of horror from some sections of the media.
Read morePhone-hacking is not a hanging offence
In February Donald Trelford, the respected former editor of the Observer, wrote in the Independent that the phone-hacking saga was a case of "dog eats dog gone barking-mad".
Read moreSuper Injunctions: committee reporting soon
By the end of this month we expect the committee investigating super injunctions to publish its report.
Read moreThe EU Council’s Conclusions On Revising EU Data Protection Law — Why Did They Bother?
The super tanker that is the European Union legislative process is currently trying to turn itself round with a view to revising data protection law.
Read morePrivacy in Tweets - the debate continues
Addressing the Westminster Media Forum on the regulation of privacy and online media earlier today Baroness Buscombe, Chairman of the PCC, referred to the PCC's decision in Baskerville
Read morePrivacy and the Protection of Freedoms Bill
The Protection of Freedoms Bill, introduced in the House of Commons on 11 February 2011, is the second part of the UK Coalition Government's mission to 'restore freedoms and civil liberties through the abolition of unnecessary laws'.
Read moreHarassment by letter-writing
Are letters capable of amounting to a course of conduct amounting to harassment?
Read moreMax Mosley and the public interest in exposing hypocrisy
In an interesting interview with the Financial Times, the UK's most indomitable privacy claimant, Max Mosley, challenges the notion that there might be a public interest in exposing hypocrisy.
Read moreNo privacy in Tweets
Publicly accessible postings on Twitter and other social media are not private, according to rulings by the Press Complaints Commission.
Read moreShock decision: sportsman not unmasked
The identity of the sportsman officially known as JIH remains confidential.
Read more