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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...

On 18 April 2018, in a notable 18-page report, Ofcom announced that it has opened seven new investigations into the observance of due impartiality by the television channel RT News, which is licensed by the regulator through ANO TV Novosti. The investigations concern RT’s alleged conduct since the occurrence of an incident in Salisbury, England on 4 March 2018, when Sergei Skripal and his daughter, suffered injury arising from an unlawful assault (possibly carried out with a nerve agent). The British Government asserted in an announcement on 14 March 2018 that “this represented an unlawful use...