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The Scottish courts decided that a defamatory statement made to the BBC was not protected by the doctrine of `qualified privilege' as the BBC is no different from any other media organisation. This doctrine serves to protect certain defamatory statements from creating liability where they fall into categories where it is seen as especially important for the public interest that free communications takes place, for example reports of inquiries or communications with members of Parliament. The court rejected the claim that the BBC performed a special role of a `watchdog in society' and that in reporting...

Chris Smith, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media And Sport has issued a licence to the BBC to broadcast its round-the-clock news channel BBC News 24. Although a licence was already granted to the BBC in July, the BBC withdrew its original application to broadcast a 24-hour news service, to protect itself from the threat of judicial review by BskyB. BSkyB had accused the BBC of predatory pricing because the corporation is to offer the service free to cable networks, in comparison with BskyB who sells its own 24-hour news service to the cable companies for about 50p per subscriber. The BBC's...

The High Court decided on 25 November that it was neither unlawful nor irrational for the owner of a closed-circuit television system (in this case a local authority) to release footage to the media for the purpose of showing how succesful the system was in the prevention and detection of crime. However, the judge recognised that there might be "undesirable invasions of a person's privacy." In this case, a man's face was identified by family and friends as it was inadequately masked. The judge proposed that, until the Europena Convention on Human Rights had been fully incorpoarted into law, reliance...

The Independent Television Commission have decided to recommend that the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport seek a Proscription Order in respect of the foreign satellite channel "Eurotica Rendez Vous" under Section 177 of the Broadcasting Act 1990. In recommending such an Order the ITC has to have regard to its effectiveness, namely, is there a trade for the service in the UK that can be affected by the Order? Eurotica is actively marketed and advertised in satellite listings magazines and dealers sell decoders and smartcards to enable it to be viewed in the country. Offences under...

The United Kingdom has made regulations to give effect to the European Union Council Directive 89/552 "Television without Frontiers" Articles. 2 and 3 concerning the pursuit of television broadcasting activities after the European Court of Justice had found the United Kingdom to be in breach by misinterpreting the basis on which satellite broadcasters fell within United Kingdom jurisdiction, by applying different regimes to domestic satellite services and non-domestic satellite services and by exercising control over broadcasts transmitted by broadcasters falling within the jurisdiction of other...