The European Court of Human Rights handed down judgment today in the epic legal battle between Helen Steel and David Morris of London Greenpeace (unconnected with Greenpeace International) and the multi billion dollar McDonald’s empire. This was the end of a legal battle which had lasted some nine years and six months, with a trial … Read more
This decision of the House of Lords handed down on 10 February overturned the decision of the Court of Appeal refusing the film director Roman Polanski leave to give evidence at the trial of his libel action via video link. The Court of Appeal had in turn overturned the decision of Mr Justice Eady granting … Read more
This action arose from an article which was posted by the defendant in the United States via a subscriber service to the Wall St Journal. The claimant sued on the basis that the material bore the defamatory meaning that he provided financial support to Al Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. This was the latest … Read more
When the Reynolds privilege defence was created by the House of Lords some five years ago, many thought that it would substantially widen the extent of the Article 10 right conferred on the media by the European Convention on Human Rights, and the scope for reporting matters of public interest would be considerably widened. Since … Read more
A website that relied on an informal disclaimer, appealing to copyright holders to forgive its obvious copyright infringement, has been forced to withdraw the infringing pictures. On 15 October 2004, News Group (owners of The Sun and News of the World) obtained an interim injunction to prohibit publication of its pictures by the offending site. … Read more
Emboldened perhaps by its success in reducing the number of matches in the Champions League, UEFA has thrown down the gauntlet to its leading clubs by insisting that clubs’ 25 man squads submitted for its competitions should contain at least two players trained in clubs’ own academies and two players who have been reared nationally … Read more
With the announcement that Lord Burns’ Panel on Charter Review is in favour of an external competition regulator for the BBC’s public service broadcasting services (rather than the in-house one which was the Beeb’s preference), one act of a classic Whitehall farce is left to run – namely the government’s endorsement of the Panel’s recommendation. … Read more
