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The new ruler of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Bin Salman, visited the United Kingdom in March 2018. The Saudi Centre for International Communication, an agency of the Ministry of Culture, thought it would be a good idea to project his Vision 2030 around the time of his visit. To do so, it bought time on Sky 1 to broadcast a message. The script referred to women being allowed to drive; the reopening of cinemas; the promotion of concerts and cultural events; and the aim to drop the country’s reliance on oil and invest in various projects, thus turning Saudi Arabia into a hub connecting three continents. As...

Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, has revoked the broadcasting licence of Ausaf UK Limited even before its broadcasting has begun. Ofcom did so because of content in a newspaper (the Daily Asaf) closely linked to the holder of the licence and produced in London and Pakistan. Ofcom is obliged by the Communications Act 1990 not to grant a licence to any person unless satisfied that the applicant is a fit and proper person to hold it, and, if they cease to be so satisfied, to secure that the person does not remain holder of the licence. It recognises that revocation represents a serious interference...

On 20 September 2018, the High Court granted an order aimed at tackling illicit streams of professional boxing matches. The application was made by Matchroom Boxing Ltd against the UK’s main retail Internet service providers, including Sky UK Ltd, British Telecommunications Plc, Virgin Media Ltd and others. The company stages more than 20 boxing events yearly, several of which feature the British boxer Anthony Joshua who currently holds three of the four major world championships in the sport. In the UK, the boxing matches are broadcast by Sky under exclusive agreements with Matchroom. Matchroom...

A short time after the judgment in Centrum för Rättvisa v. Sweden (see IRIS 2018-8/3), the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has delivered a new judgment on the bulk interception of communications and intelligence sharing. This time, the ECtHR has found several violations of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in the United Kingdom’s regime for bulk interception of communications, including a violation of the right of journalists to protect their sources. It is important, however, to underscore that the UK has updated its surveillance rules under new legislation, the Investigatory...

On 13 July 2018, Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, published two qualitative research reports on people’s attitudes towards online news consumption. The purpose of the research was to acquire a more detailed understanding of the behaviours sitting behind the increase in the number of people accessing the news via online platforms in order to inform policy considerations. Respondents, who were selected to represent a cross-section of the United Kingdom, were asked to complete a combination of online pre-tasks as well as a set of activities on their media use. The data captured was followed...