Year: 2007

Channel Four fined £1.5m

Media watchdog Ofcom has fined Channel Four £1.5m for misconduct involving phone-in competitions on its Richard and Judy and Deal or No Deal programmes. It found that viewers were urged to call in to the Richard… Read More »

MOD obtains gagging order

The High Court has imposed an order preventing media publicity of allegations of abuse by British soldiers serving in Iraq. Lawyers for Iraqi families launched a High Court challenge on human rights grounds to the… Read More »

Kidman wins libel damages

Nicole Kidman has accepted substantial damages from the Daily Telegraph over allegations that she had broken her contract with perfume company Chanel.   In its Spy gossip column on DATE, the newspaper published an article falsely alleging that while in London… Read More »

Privacy payout for Sienna Miller

Sienna Miller has accepted £37,500 in compensation from Newsgroup Newspapers and Xposure Photo Agency Ltd following the publication of nude photographs of the actress in the News of the World and The Sun. The settlement amount is… Read More »

Patrick Moloney QC becomes a judge

1 Brick Court libel silk Patrick Moloney has been appointed to the Circuit Bench. After graduating from Oxford University, Patrick was called to the Bar by Middle Temple in 1976. He joined 1 Brick Court in… Read More »

Jerry Springer: not blasphemous libel

Christian Voice, an evangelical Christian organisation, has failed to overturn a Magistrates’ decision not to allow a prosecution against the BBC and theatrical producers of Jerry Springer – The Opera as blasphemous libel. Christian Voice… Read More »

Panorama rapped over wi-fi report

The BBC has upheld complaints against an edition of its flagship current affairs series Panorama about the health hazards caused by Wi-Fi. The programme, Wi-Fi: A Warning Signal, broadcast on BBC1 in May, explored whether the… Read More »

Source protection boost from ECHR

A journalist with the German weekly magazine Stern has won an important victory in the European Court of Human Rights in relation to protection of sources.   In February and March 2002, the journalist, Hans Tillack, published two articles in… Read More »

Gatley Supplement now on sale

The Second Supplement to the Tenth Edition of Gatley on Libel and Slander is now available.   Gatley is the definitive work on the law and procedure of libel and slander. The supplement includes all… Read More »

Appointment to the Bar Standards Board

Matthew Nicklin has been appointed to the Bar Standards Board, the independent body of the Bar Council responsible for regulating barristers.   The Bar Standards Board (“BSB”) was established by the Bar Council in January 2006… Read More »

Launch of The Trials of Art

Last night Withers LLP hosted a launch party for a new work – The Trials of Art – edited by Daniel McClean of Withers LLP with a foreword by Lord Hoffmann. The book is published by Ridinghouse… Read More »

Blairs win privacy payout

The Daily Mail has paid “substantial damages” in an out-of-court settlement with former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and his wife Cherie after the newspaper published photographs of the Blairs on holiday in the Caribbean.   The Blairs complained that… Read More »

Newspaper fined for naming child

The Wiltshire Gazette & Herald has been fined £3,000 and ordered to pay legal costs after identifying a child in breach of an order under s.39 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933. The newspaper,… Read More »

Leading vet in Privy Council victory

A vet’s appeal against his removal from the register of veterinary surgeons by a Disciplinary Committee of the RCVS was today allowed by the Privy Council, and a penalty of six months substituted in its place.   Dr Alan… Read More »

Jerry Springer – The Opera back in Court

Christian Voice, an evangelical group, has launched judicial review proceedings of a magistrates’ court decision not to prosecute the BBC and the theatrical producers of Jerry Springer – The Opera for blasphemous libel. The controversial stage… Read More »

Channel 4 cleared in TV ‘fakery’ row

Broadcasting regulator Ofcom has today dismissed all complaints against Channel 4 Dispatches programme Undercover Mosque, including a claim by West Midlands Police that the programme had misrepresented the views of Muslim preachers and clerics through misleading editing. As… Read More »

Wikipedia not liable for content

A French court has ruled that the Wikipedia Foundation, the US-based organisation that runs Wikipedia, the free user-generated internet encyclopedia, is not liable for defamatory content posted on the site by anonymous third parties. Three… Read More »

IVF doctor settles HFEA libel claim

Mohamed Taranissi, statistically the UK‘s most successful fertility doctor, has reached an agreement to settle his libel claim against the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). Former chief executive Angela McNab had claimed on a… Read More »