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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...

On 13 May 2015, the UK regulator Ofcom issued a statement regarding revised arrangements for signing to start from 1 January 2016, following a consultation (published in 2014). The arrangements affect “relevant TV channels”, meaning (i) domestic TV channels (ii) with an audience share between 0.05% and 1%. Generally, the new arrangements envisage an increase in the amount of sign-presented programming over time: 30 minutes a month from the first anniversary of the relevant date (for the purpose of access services obligations the relevant date is the later of the date the channel started broadcasting...

Ofcom has an obligation to consider whether a broadcaster has avoided unjust or unfair treatment of individuals and organisations featured in a broadcast pursuant to Rule 7.1 of Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code (The Code). This Rule was applied by Ofcom in determining a complaint against a Pakistan Community TV Station based in the UK called ARY News. They determined that the broadcaster had unfairly or unjustly treated a Mr Mansoor Ijaz during a broadcast. On 14 February 2014, ARY News broadcast a current affairs programme called Khara Sach (translated as “the Plain Truth”), which made various allegations...