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The Communications Act 2003 has now finished its passage through Parliament and became law on 17 July 2003 (see IRIS 2002-6: 9, IRIS 2002-7: 12 and IRIS 2002-8: 7). The Act is long and complex and makes major changes both to regulatory institutions and to the law relating to broadcasting; the main themes of the legislation are as follows. First, the Act gives regulatory powers to a new institution, the Office of Communications (Ofcom), to replace five earlier ones, including the Independent Television Commission and the Radio Authority (the Office had already been established in preliminary form...

The case involved the disclosure of information contained in confidential health records, which had been obtained by an investigative journalist. On the facts of the particular case, which were distinguishable from an earlier House of Lords decision in 2002 (Ashworth Hospital Authority v. MGN Ltd), the Court of Appeal quashed a summary order for source disclosure against the journalist. Lord Justice May said: "[P]rotection of journalistic sources is one of the basic conditions for press freedom in a democratic society. An order for source disclosure cannot be compatible with Article 10 of the European...

The Broadcasting Act 1990, Section 6(1)(a), imposes a duty on the Independent Television Commission to do all it can to secure that every service which it licenses complies with a requirement that "nothing is included in its programmes which offends against good taste or decency or is likely to encourage or incite to crime or to lead to disorder or to be offensive to public feeling." The 1996 agreement between the BBC and the Secretary of State provides, in clause 5.1(d), that the Corporation shall do all it can to secure that all programmes which it broadcasts or transmits "do not include anything...

The British Culture secretary had announced, at the beginning of 2003, that new Codes of Practice should govern the relations between the major broadcasters (including the BBC and the commercial broadcasters) and independent producers (see IRIS 2003-3: 12). The Independent Television Commission, which regulates commercial broadcasting, has now issued guidance on the content of the Codes. The Codes will be developed by the broadcasters themselves, and submitted by the end of July 2003; approval will rest with the new Office of Communications (Ofcom), which will take over the Commission's responsibilities...

The Independent Television Commission, the British regulator of the commercial broadcasting sector, has decided that two programmes shown by Living TV, a small cable and satellite channel, breached the Commission's Programme Code, mainly because they were not presented as entertainment. In the programmes, mediums purported to make contact with the spirits of the dead and to pass messages to members of the studio audience. The Code (section 1.10) provides that demonstrations of exorcisms and occult practices are not acceptable in factual programming except in the context of a legitimate investigation....