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Whilst the UK Parliament’s Online Harms Bill 2022 awaits further passage through both the Houses of Common and Lords, the verdict in a recent Coroner’s Court decision has invited some of the leading online platforms to consider self-regulatory measures to protect children and vulnerable adults from harmful content. The Coroner’s hearing was heard in the Northern District of Greater London Coroner’s Court, before H. M. Coroner and senior coroner Mr Andrew Walker, concerning the suicide of 14 years old Molly Rose Russell who died on the 21 November 2017.  Despite a...

On 23 September 2022, the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee, which is responsible for scrutinising the work of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and its associated public bodies (including the BBC), published the government response to its report Influencer Culture: Lights, camera, inaction? (previously reported on IRIS 2022-7/18). The Committee had found low rates of compliance with advertising regulation and concluded that employment protection had failed to keep up with the growth of online influencer culture, leaving those working in...

Ofcom has held that Sky News had not undertaken an unwarranted infringement of privacy in relation to two broadcasts concerning the release of a notorious convicted conman, Mr Mark Acklom, by showing a pixelated photograph of himself with his family and another picture taken on an aircraft. Applying Ofcom rules, and having considered Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the regulator’s determination balanced Mr Acklom’s right to privacy against Sky’s freedom of expression to report matters in the public interest, and on balance, in the particular circumstances,...

The Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) has determined that a dining experience company, Only Fools The (cushty) Dining Experience and other associated defendants (collectively referred to as the Dining Experience) had borrowed characters and features from the successful Only Fools and Horses TV comedy series (OFAH) thus infringing its copyright. Further, the IPEC determined that the character of ‘Del Boy’ was a literary work and the Dining Experience had infringed its copyright by using many distinctive characteristics. This is the first time in the UK that copyright has...

Following a successful pilot scheme, authorised broadcast news channels are now able to air judges’ sentencing hearings in Crown Courts across England and Wales. Crown Courts handle serious criminal cases (like murder and rape) and appeals from magistrates’ courts. They usually consist of a jury who decides on issues of guilt and a judge who is responsible for sentencing. Further guidance on broadcasting sentencing remarks was published by Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) on 27 July 2022. This is a further step towards the modernisation of the courts, including...