Year: 2008

Pushchair privacy appeal succeeds

The Court of Appeal today handed down its eagerly awaited judgment in the privacy claim involving photographs of J. K. Rowling’s son. The Court allowed the Claimant’s appeal, overturning the August 2007 decision to strike the claim out, finding him to have an… Read More »

Conference5RB 2008 Launched

The two years since the last 5RB Conference have seen important developments in media and sports law as the Courts have wrestled with the difficult balance to be struck between the rights of individuals to… Read More »

Air India chief wins libel trial

The jury in the trial of a libel action brought by an Air India executive over a 2006 Evening Standard article entitled ‘Sex Shame of Airline Chief’ returned its verdict this afternoon, finding in favour… Read More »

Football manager wins libel damages

The manager of Aston Villa and former Northern Ireland international Martin O’Neill has received substantial undisclosed damages and an apology from the publishers of the website football365.com for false allegations that he had “tapped up”… Read More »

Charity regulator reports privileged

The High Court has today handed down a judgment confirming that a defence of qualified privilege is available to a Defendant who publishes material on its website providing it is under a duty to do so and the… Read More »

OFT pays out over milk pricing investigation

The supermarket Morrisons has accepted £100,000 from the Office of Fair Trading after the regulator claimed that the supermarket had broken rules that apply to the market for dairy products and been warned over anti-competitive… Read More »

Air India executive libel trial begins

The trial of a libel action brought by an Air India executive over a 2006 Evening Standard article entitled ‘Sex Shame of Airline chief’ began today.   Associated Newspapers, which publishes the London newspaper, along… Read More »

BBC wins Doctor Who copyright case

BBC Worldwide, the BBC’s commercial arm, has successfully defended a copyright infringement claim brought against it over a book it had published on Doctor Who’s famous enemies, the Daleks. Publishers JHP, whose managing director Paul Fishman was the… Read More »

GMTV star wins libel damages

GMTV presenter and Strictly Come Dancing star Kate Garraway received substantial undisclosed damages and an apology from the publisher of the Daily and Sunday Mirror today for false allegations that she was having an affair… Read More »

Mosley refused ‘orgy’ injunction

Mr Justice Eady has today ruled that News Group Newspapers, publishers of the News of the World, can show edited footage of FIA chief Max Mosley engaging in sexual activities with five prostitutes.   Mr… Read More »

Actor wins ‘dog theft’ libel apology

Actress Kathleen Turner, her publishers and Associated Newspapers Ltd have apologised to actor Nicholas Cage for allegations about him published in Ms Turner’s memoirs, extracts of which were serialised in the Daily Mail and Mail… Read More »

Heinz wins ‘swastika pasta’ apology

Loaded magazine has apologised to food manufacturer Heinz for a defamatory allegation the magazine published about one of its pasta products during the Second World War. Loaded‘s May edition included an allegation that between 1937 and… Read More »

Largest damages yet for internet libel

A “malicious, unpleasant and relentless” campaign of libel and harassment against a housing group and its chief executive has resulted in settlement with a payment of £119,000 in damages.   Mr Peter Walls, chief executive… Read More »

Singer wins ‘Whiter Shade’ appeal

Procol Harum singer Gary Brooker has won his appeal against the ruling that organist Matthew Fisher was entitled to 40% of the royalties to ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’. In 2006, Blackburne J had held… Read More »

Retreat on new press data law

Reports have emerged that new legislation aimed at preventing misuse of private information by private detectives and the media has lost the support of the government. The new legislation sought to introduce much more severe… Read More »

Police win access to book research

The co-author of a book on a former Al-Qaeda recruiter and fundraiser has been ordered to make his research for the book available to police. Shiv Malik’s book, ‘Leaving Al-Qaeda’, co-written with its subject Hassan… Read More »

Matthew Nicklin on BBC Radio 4’s Law in Action

In the last of the present series, BBC Radio 4’s Law in Action looks at defamation litigation, celebrities and the rapidly developing privacy law.   The days of serial high-profile litigation involving the likes of Robert Maxwell and Jeffrey Archer… Read More »