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Ofcom has published its Children and parents: Media use and attitudes report 2018 (“the Report”). Ofcom’s definition of media literacy is the ability to use, understand and create media and communications in a variety of contexts. The Report is a consequence of Ofcom’s responsibility under The Communications Act 2003 to promote and to carry out research into media literacy. In fulfilment of this responsibility, the Report focuses on children and parents. Ofcom used its quantitative Children and Parents’ Media Literacy Tracker to gather detailed evidence regarding media use, attitudes and understanding...

Ofcom determined that RT failed the impartiality Code of Conduct for having lacked impartiality on seven out of the ten complaints arising from their coverage of the Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia poisoning incident in Salisbury on 4 March 2018 - broadcast on RT over a period of approximately seven weeks between 17 March 2018 and 4 May 2018 (see IRIS 2018-7/18). The Ofcom licence for the RT service is held by the autonomous non-profit organisation TV-Novosti. The programmes subject to complaint were: Sputnik, RT, 17 March 2018, 7.30 p.m.; Sputnik, RT, 7 April 2018, 7.30 p.m.; Worlds Apart,...

On 18 January 2019, Sheffield Magistrates’ Court acquitted the BBC Asian Network head of news Arif Ansari of breaching the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1992 after a reporter named a rape victim live on air. Ansari was the editor of a radio programme when a reporter, Rickin Majithia, revealed in a live news bulletin the identity of a female victim of sexual abuse whilst reporting on the trial of her abuser in February 2018 outside Sheffield Crown Court. Majithia had wrongly assumed that the name read out in court was a pseudonym. Although Majithia was in error, the charge was brought against...

On 19 December 2018, Mr. Justice Nicklin handed down the judgment in Monir v Wood, ordering the defendant, the chairman of a local branch of a political party, to pay GBP 40 000 in damages for a defamatory message sent by a branch member through the branch’s Twitter account. The judgment highlights the potential liability of those who set up social media accounts and then delegate responsibility to others to post on their behalf. The claimant in this action was Zahir Monir, a businessman and Labour activist from Rotherham. He brought libel proceedings against Stephen Wood, the former chairman of...

On 1 November 2018, the Law Commission, an independent body set up by Parliament in 1965 to promote the reform of the law of England and Wales, published its Scoping Report on Abusive and Offensive Online Communications. The Commission reviewed the current criminal law in order to identify any gaps or deficiencies that cause problems in tackling online and social media-based abuse. Terrorism offences, liability of social media platforms, child sexual exploitation offences, online fraud and contempt of court were excluded from the scope of this review. The report analysed the scale of online offending...