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On 23 July 2015, the European Commission sent a Statement of Objections to Sky UK and a number of film studios, setting out the Commission’s preliminary view that the parties have anti-competitive agreements in place, in violation of EU competition law. A statement of objections is a formal step in an investigation into possible violations of EU law, and while the statement does not prejudge the outcome of an investigation, it contains the Commission’s preliminary position. The film studios involved include Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount Pictures, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros. The...

In a judgment dated the 19 June 2015, the High Court set aside section 28B of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, introduced with effect from 1 October 2014 by Copyright and rights in Performance (Personal Copies for Private Use) Regulations 2014, which allowed an exception to copyright laws based upon private use (see IRIS 2014-10/19). Section 28B allowed for any person who had legitimately acquired copyrighted material to copy that work, including onto other formats, provided it was for legitimate non-commercial use. Section 28B arose from the government using a discretion under Directive...

A new set of guidelines on open justice and reporting restrictions in the criminal courts has been published by the Lord Chief Justice, the News Media Association (NMA), the Society of Editors and the Media Lawyers Association, who were all involved in their preparation. The new guidelines take account of recent changes relating to anonymity for those under 18 and in cases concerned with female genital mutilation. The basic principle is that of open justice, requiring that proceedings must be held in public, evidence must be communicated publicly and fair, accurate and contemporaneous media reporting...

The cases concerned claims based on infringements of privacy rights as a result of the unauthorised access by one person of another’s voicemail/answering machine (phone hacking). The defendant was the proprietor of three newspapers - the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and The People. The claimants were eight persons in the public eye, such as actors, sportsmen or people with an association with such people. The claimants argued that journalists listened to messages left on the claimants’ respective voicemail services and also listened to the voicemail messages left by the claimants on the phones...

Ofcom determined that the Channel 4 News report on Russia’s foreign and military policy in Eastern and Western Europe following President Putin’s early exit from the G20 summit in Brisbane Australia contravened rule 5.1 of the code of conduct which states that “News, in whatever form, must be reported with due accuracy and presented with due impartiality”. Pursuant to the Communications Act 2003, Ofcom has a statutory duty to set standards for broadcast content, including that TV and radio news services are reported with due accuracy and presented with due impartiality. However, when implementing...