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The House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (the Committee) has published its Disinformation and ‘fake news’: interim report (the Report). A further, substantive report will be published in autumn 2018. The Report’s remit expanded from the phenomenon of fake news distributed through social media to also include other activities which, unless addressed, would endanger the future of democracy. The Committee took account of events such as evidence of election influencing through the Russian state-sponsored manipulation of social media and, similarly, attempts by private companies...

Sir Cliff Richard OBE (Sir Cliff), a popular singer whose career spans over 50 years, was awarded damages and costs in the High Court of Justice against the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for their infringement of his privacy during a South Yorkshire Police (SYP) investigation against him concerning an alleged historic sex crime which was not pursued. Mr Justice Mann presided over a twelve-day trial during which he balanced Sir Cliff’s right to privacy flowing from Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) introduced into English law by the Human Rights Act 1998 (the Act)...

On 13 June 2018, the UK Supreme Court held in Cartier International AG & Ors v British Telecommunications Plc & Anor that Internet service providers (ISPs) should not bear the costs incurred in implementing counterfeit site-blocking injunctions issued against them under section 37(1) of the Senior Courts Act 1981. The appellants in this case are the five largest providers of networks through which subscribers can access content online but who do not provide, store or monitor content themselves. The respondents are well-known companies belonging to the Richemont Group. They design, manufacture and...

On 8 May 2018 the UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom, determined that Al Hiwar, a satellite news channel broadcasting to Arab communities in the UK and Middle East, had breached the rules concerning the causing of harm and offence under Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code. The licence for Al Hiwar is held by Sage Media Ltd. As part of its routine monitoring activities, Ofcom assessed the daily current affairs programme Free Speech, which broadcasts in Arabic. The second half of the programme featured a live discussion concerning protests across several Arab countries and elsewhere in the Middle East in...

On 10 May 2018 the BBC Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) delivered its decision on the portrayal of the Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, in a current affairs programme on UK/Russian relations. Following an incident in the English town of Salisbury (an ex-Russian KGB officer had been allegedly attacked with a nerve agent) and a subsequent House of Commons appearance on the matter by Mr Corbyn, BBC’s Newsnight programme presented a studio discussion about his position. 48 people complained to the ECU that the studio’s backdrop had been deliberately contrived to convey an impression of pro-Russian...