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 »
Journalist wins access to injunction application skeleton arguments
Freelance journalist Benjamin Pell has won his battle to obtain copies of the skeleton arguments used in an attempt to stop Channel 4 broadcasting an interview with Simon Mann, the ‘manager’ of an attempted coup… 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 »
Judge: no secrecy for royal blackmail trial
A judge yesterday dismissed an application by the Crown Prosecution Service to have parts of the royal blackmail trial heard in secret. The trial, in which two men are accused of blackmailing a member… Read More »
Adelson accepts apology, damages
American entrepreneur Sheldon Adelson and his company Las Vegas Sands Corp have settled their long-running libel action against Associated Newspapers brought over allegations published in the Daily Mail which centred on claims linked to the… Read More »
McCanns win front page apologies
The Daily Express and Daily Star newspapers today published prominent front page apologies to Gerry and Kate McCann over a string of articles alleging that they were responsible for the death of their daughter Madeleine…. Read More »
Bid to injunct Channel 4 fails
Channel 4 last night broadcast an interview with British mercenary Simon Mann after Mann’s family failed in their bid to injunct the programme last Friday. The family obtained a without notice injunction the previous… Read More »
Northern Ireland newspaper wins restaurant review appeal
A Belfast newspaper which ran a review slating a local restaurant has won its appeal against a jury verdict and the £25,000 award of damages. In 2000 the Irish News published a review of a pizza… Read More »
PCC considers ‘intrusion’ of Facebook users’ privacy
The Press Complaints Commission intends to examine the use of material obtained from social networks, like MySpace and Facebook, by the print media.The regulatory body will examine the grey area that surrounds the extent to which newspapers… Read More »
Pushchair privacy case goes to appeal
The privacy row involving photographs of Harry Potter author, J. K. Rowling’s son, goes to the Court of Appeal today. In August 2007 Mr Justice Patten, in the Chancery Division, granted a strike out application… Read More »
Lords refuse Springer petition
A petition brought by Christian Voice, an evangelical Christian organisation, seeking to overturn a High Court ruling preventing a private blasphemous libel prosecution against the BBC and theatrical producers of Jerry Springer – The Opera… Read More »
Romanian royal faces Reynolds appeal
The Defendant in a libel claim brought by the husband of the daughter of the former King of Romania has today been granted permission to appeal against a finding that the publication was not protected… Read More »
Hung jury in abortion libel trial
The High Court trial of the libel action brought by a former spokesman for the head of the Roman Catholic church in England and Wales against Associated Newspapers over an article in the Daily Mail has ended with the jury being unable to… Read More »
Internet archives ‘create contempt risk’
Lord Falconer yesterday called for action to be taken to reduce the risk of news articles written before the commencement of criminal trials influencing their outcomes. He proposed that publishers should be made to remove archived pages which contain prejudicial material… Read More »
Computer printers may breach privacy laws
The practice of including watermarks, usually in the form of tiny, barely visible yellow dots, on documents produced by common computer printers may be unlawful, according to Franco Frattini, the vice-president of the European Commission. The ‘forensic… Read More »