Media law RSS feed for the Media law tag
found 8 stories.
Comment
The Plastic Hippo 29 Dec 10
Just the other day, my wife and I visited Walsall town centre and we were both disgusted at what we were forced to endure. What in God’s name has happened to the town that was once the jewel in the crown of the British Empire?
Not one person was carrying an English flag or wearing a rose to celebrate St Georges day. It seems that they are ashamed to be English. Instead, some of them were wearing red hats trimmed with fur as a blatant display of loyalty to evil Marxist tyranny. All of them were probably unemployed and rather than perform their civic duty by buying a shovel and clearing the pavements of snow, they were actually going into shops and buying presents. I nearly slipped. It makes me ashamed to be English.
But it gets worse. My wife and I had to walk…
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The Plastic Hippo 13 Nov 10
Doncaster is a long way from Thrace, Erdington is even further from Tehran and Twitter is a million miles away from a real conversation. However, the seemingly unstoppable influence of the 140 character bon mot now unites the Thracian leader of a slaves revolt, Robin Hood, an Iranian woman condemned to death by stoning and a very, very, very stupid Birmingham councillor.
Back in January, accountant Paul Chambers was trying to book a flight from Robin Hood airport near Doncaster to visit his girlfriend in Belfast. Frustrated and suffering from airport rage, he tweeted the following to his 600 followers:
“Crap! Robin Hood airport closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!”
In May, Chambers was prosecuted…
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BrownhillsBob 12 Aug 10
Please excuse me a little indulgence today. I’m going to break away from the usual stuff I do and talk a bit about blogging and freedom of speech, because something has happened in the local blog community that’s really irritated me, and what’s more, it seems to be a component of a larger trend.
I’m sure that readers of this particular blog, and the many others out there in cyberspace, believe in responsible freedom of speech. That is, I’m sure that we all share the belief that we should be able to express our freely held beliefs in the public domain providing they don’t claim untruths or incite hatred of minorities, be they ethnic, religious or cultural. The position a blogger or journalist traditionally enjoys in the United Kingdom – that they can express their opinion freely and without fear – seems to be under some threat…
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Political Penguin 12 Aug 10
This is a rather brief notification regarding matters that have come to pass in the last 24 hours. It has come to my attention that a blogpost I wrote in July 2007 has become the attention of a certain individual who has led a crusade against me in an attempt to deny both my freedom of speech and others who posted comments on the subject.
This has included writing e-mails to a variety of people within the Labour Party (which I must point out here does and has never had any affiliation to this website as it is purely my own so he shouldn’t have) and the domain name registrar for this site…
Comment
The Plastic Hippo 12 Aug 10
One of the few remaining Liberal Democrats left with any credibility, Anthony Lester, Baron Lester of Herne Hill no less, is putting before the commons a private members bill proposing changes to inadequate legislation regarding liable, slander and defamation.
This might seem a little boring to those of us who strike fag ash covered computer keyboards with curry stained fingers and lash out with aplomb at anything that takes our fancy. But bloggers might wish to take the can of Special Brew off the open CD-ROM drive for a moment and consider his Defamation Bill.
The 1996 Defamation Act was passed into law without any reference or consideration of the present day power of the internet, but still governs everything we choose to post on our blogs. If this humble blog were to suggest that, for example, the Leader of Council went around at the dead of night removing the gold fillings from pensioners teeth for personal financial gain; that would be a clear and indefensible case of defamation and could possibly involve a custodial sentence. Basically, it would be a malicious lie. The current law, however, could result in a similar sanction if this humble blog suggested that he was not particularly good at his job…
News
Laura Roberts Telegraph 9 Jul 10
A Walsall woman is suing her former husband for bugging her carphone in a “spiteful” campaign designed to influence their divorce proceedings.
Harvinder Singh Gora secretly recorded the private conversations of his former wife Baksho Devi Gora by placing a bug in her car, a court heard. Mrs Gora is seeking “substantial damages” in the unique High Court case which could have far reaching implications for privacy laws…
Comment
George Makin The Stirrer 31 May 10
The publication of Lord Lester’s reform Bill of the Defamation Act should be welcomed, particularly by those who use the internet as their main platform to publish articles and promote debate.
But would the bill stop those with the money or access to the legal system from issuing multi writs not for the intention of protecting their good name or reputation but instead to harvest as much money as they can, whether or not the article has actually caused them damage ?
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The Stirrer 29 May 10
Changes to the libel laws were one of the hottest topics of the last session of the new parliament – before being scuppered by West Bromwich East MP Tom Watson among others. Now new legislation has been launched in the Lords.
Lord Lester QC has published a Private Members’ Defamation Bill, rated by supporters as the first attempt in over a century to put forward a wholesale redraft of the libel laws…