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Further to the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s reference to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate the impact on media plurality and broadcasting standards of the proposed acquisition by 21st Century Fox Inc of the shares of Sky Plc ( Sky) (see IRIS 2017-9/15), on 10 October 2017, the CMA issued its timetable and Issues Statement. Fox already has about 39% shareholding in Sky, whilst the Murdoch Family Trust (MFT) owns 39% of Fox and 39% of News Corporation, which fully owns News UK — the publisher of The Sun and The Times. Sky owns and operates Sky...

On 20 November 2017, Ofcom determined that two news programmes broadcast during the UK General Election in June 2017 breached the election silence rule under Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code, which prohibits discussion and analysis of election and referendum issues when polls are open. Channel 44 is a cable television channel. It broadcasts Urdu language news and current affairs programmes in the United Kingdom. The licence for this service is held by City News Network (SMC) Pvt Ltd (“City News” or “the Licensee”). Two complaints were received about two programmes which referred to the Conservative and...

On 19 October 2017, in Banner Universal Motion Pictures Ltd v. Endemol Shine Group Ltd & Anor, the High Court in London held that TV formats can be eligible for copyright protection as dramatic works under English law. The case related to a television game show format which is called Minute Winner, in which randomly selected members of the public could win a prize after successfully completing a minute-long challenge. It was devised in 2003 by Mr Derek Banner, a Danish citizen, and could be broadcast either singly as a one-minute fill between other programmes, or in a programme break, or as a feature-length,...

On 12 October 2017, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) issued its decision in Tamiz v. U, concerning a politician’s claim that his right to protection of reputation had been violated following the UK courts’ refusal to find Google liable for allegedly defamatory comments on Google’s Blogger platform. The applicant was a Conservative Party candidate in local UK elections, and on 27 April 2011, a blog post was published on the "London Muslim” blog, hosted on blogger.com, which is owned by Google Inc. The blog post concerned the applicant, and included the observation that “this Tory prat...

Channel 4 News has been found in breach of Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code concerning their coverage of the Westminster Bridge attack on 22 March 2017 by wrongly identifying the terror attacker who murdered five people. Channel 4 News is produced by Independent Television News Limited (ITN). Rule 5.1 of the Code states “News, in whatever form, must be reported with due accuracy and presented with due impartiality”. The Channel 4 News Senior Home Affairs Correspondent, Simon Israel, named Abu Izzadeen as the terrorist shot dead in the grounds of the Palace of Westminster after the murder of five persons....