Defamation – Page 16

What are websites for?

9 March, 200815 November, 2010

| Airline charges, Consumer, Contract, Defamation

There were interesting stories in the media recently, but I have been unable to find any traces of them on the websites of the relevant organisations. Their websites are rather good, and both organisations are media-savvy and tech-savvy, so the continuing absence of any trace of the stories is, to say the least, quite puzzling.

Update (12 March 2008): The National Consumer Agency (NCA), and National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI), for it is they, have still not added these developments to their website. Below the fold, find details of the tricks they are missing.…

Recent Developments in Media Law and Regulation

7 December, 200716 January, 2009

| 3 Comments

| Defamation, Freedom of Expression

The School of Law, Trinity College Dublin, will host a conference on the above theme on Thursday, 17 January 2008 next. Full details here. This conference offers an excellent opportunity for legal practitioners, journalists, editors and anyone with an interest in the Irish media to keep up to date with the many significant developments that have occurred in the last 12 months. Many of the questions to be discussed on the day have already featured on this blog, and the speakers will include my colleagues Dr Eoin Carolan and Dr Neville Cox, Prof John Horgan (the recently-appointed Press Ombudsman), solicitors Karyn Harty and Paula Mullooly, and barrister Luá¡n Ó Braonáin SC.…

Libel Tourism – Two Footnotes

30 November, 200716 November, 2015

| 2 Comments

| Defamation, libel tourism, Libel tourism

Further to my earlier post on libel tourism, I’ve recently come across two interesting footnotes.

First, there is a rather pointed short film, called The Libel Tourist, about Rachel Ehrenfeld’s legal travails with Saudi billionaire Khalid bin Mahfouz here and here (YouTube) (hat tip: the always excellent Critical Mass; also Overlawyered and Reason).

Second, Mahfouz’s own website proudly proclaims:

Ireland

Q: Do the family have Irish citizenship?

A: In 1990, Khalid Bin Mahfouz availed himself of the opportunity under the laws of the Republic of Ireland to obtain Irish citizenship for himself and other members of his family.

Yikes!…

The Court of Appeal in Ontario gets in on the act

27 November, 20076 December, 2007

| No Comments

| Defamation

I have already discussed on this blog the decision of the Irish High Court in Leech v Independent Newspapers [2007] IEHC 223 (27 June 2007) which all but copperfastened the defence of reasonable publication (or responsible journalism in the public interest) to libel actions at Irish law. Now, in Cusson v Quan [2007] ONCA 771 (13 November 2007) (also here), in a case concerning an article in the Ottawa Citizen, the Court of Appeal in Ontario has allowed Canada to begin to get in on the act too. Joe Rayment saw this coming last January (also here). Now battle lines are being drawn, with Andrew Scott weighing in with an excellent post in favour of this development on MediaPal@LSE, and Mark McQueen contributing an equally impressive critique against it. Fagstein says that in Canada, the libel chill is warming slightly (with interesting further links; see also Cavanagh Williams | Editor & Publisher). Two paragraphs of Sharpe JA’s judgment in particular are worth focussing on. …

Association of European Journalists in Dublin

12 November, 200725 March, 2009

| 2 Comments

| Defamation, Media and Communications, Privacy

The Association of European Journalists held their 45th Annual Congress in Dublin Castle over the weekend. On Saturday, 10 November 2007, the morning session considered the theme:

50 years later: The EU in a shrinking world

And they, lucky people, heard a speech by An Taoiseach (blogged here; reported here, here and here (Irish Times sub req’d)) in which he said that a referendum on the Lisbon Reform Treaty is likely be held in the first half of 2008. (He had previously addressed the Irish Branch of the AEJ in 2005 (reported here), as have several of his Ministers since: Minister of State Treacy in 2007, and Minister Ryan in 2007 – also here).

Of greater interest, the afternoon session considered the theme

Freedom of the Media

The special guest was Miklos Haraszti, Representative for Freedom of the Media in the OSCE. According to an article by Marie O’Halloran in today’s Irish Times (sub req’d), he urged that Ireland should “show the rest of the world and create a wonderful example” by becoming the first western EU state to drop legislation that allows for the jailing of journalists for defamation. He said that said section 34 of the Defamation Bil, 2006 was “very progressive” and abolished common law offences of criminal, seditious and obscene libel, but section 35 allowed for a sentence of up to five years for the publication of “gravely harmful statements”.…

The Manifest Destiny of Critics’ Fair Comment, Again

6 November, 20076 November, 2007

| 3 Comments

| Defamation, Freedom of Expression

During the Summer, I wrote about the decision of the UK’s Court of Appeal in Associated Newspapers Ltd v Keith Burstein [2007] EWCA Civ 600 (22 June 2007), to the effect that an opera critic’s review of the defedant’s opera Manifest Destiny was covered by the defence of fair comment. The defendant sought to appeal to the House of Lords. Now, via MediaPal@LSE (see also Media Law Prof Blog) I learn that, at the end of last month, the House of Lords has decided not to hear the appeal on the usual ground the case “does not raise an arguable point of law of general public importance which ought to be considered by the House”. According to Ben Dowell in The Guardian, however, the undaunted composer intends to bring the case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). I wrote at the time that the Court of Appeal decision was plainly good common sense, and very welcome for it; I am glad that the House of Lords has declined to hear the appeal; and I fully expect the European Court of Human Rights to dismiss the case as manifestly ill-founded (within the meaning of Article 35(3) of the European Convention on Human Rights (pdf)).…

Should Jameel spell the end of ‘libel tourism’ to the UK?

31 October, 200716 November, 2015

| 4 Comments

| Defamation, libel tourism

An essay by Rachel Donadio, in the New York Times Sunday Book Review of 7 October 2007, entitled Libel Without Borders (hat tip: Law Librarian Blog), begins:

When it first appeared in 2006, Alms for Jihad, an academic book on Islamic charitable networks by two American scholars, drew scant attention. It sold a modest 1,500 copies and received few reviews. But in recent weeks the book has become an international cause cÃ©lÃ¨bre, after Cambridge University Press agreed to pulp all unsold copies in a defamation settlement.

The angry and defiant reaction of Robert Collins, one of the authors, can be read here (with an update here; and there’s more on the story generally from American Libraries, Chronicle of Higher Education, Critical Mass, Democracy Project, FrontPageMagazine.com, Human Events, Mark Steyn, and wikipedia). In what must be an oversight, the book still remains in CUP’s online catalogue (and that’s the cover image, on the top left of this post, from the same site); I can’t find it on Amazon, but this entry is still on the Barnes & Noble website.

This species of forum shopping is called libel tourism; it is said that it chills investigative journalism; and Alms for Jihad is not the only example …

Press Ombudsman

2 October, 200710 December, 2012

| 7 Comments

| Defamation, Press Council

I concluded yesterday’s post by wondering what the impact of the Defamation Bill, 2006 might be upon the decision of Charlton J in Leech v Independent Newspapers (High Court, unreported, 28 June 2007). After that decision was handed down, the Department of Justice confirmed that the Bill, which failed to complete its passage through the Oireachtas during the lifetime of the last government, is to be re-entered on the order paper of the new Seanad in the Autumn (see Irish Times (sub req’d)). Though it is a flawed Bill, it is much better than the existing position; so this would be good news, were it not for the fact that the Irish Times predicts the Bill will be altered to reflect a more minimalist approach to libel reform.

Whatever else is excised, it is certain that the provisions relating to the Press Council and Press Ombudsman will be retained, not least because the membership of the Council was announced early in the Summer, and the Ombudsman has recently been appointed …

cearta.ie

Category: Defamation

What are websites for?

Recent Developments in Media Law and Regulation

Libel Tourism – Two Footnotes

The Court of Appeal in Ontario gets in on the act

Association of European Journalists in Dublin

The Manifest Destiny of Critics’ Fair Comment, Again

Should Jameel spell the end of ‘libel tourism’ to the UK?

Press Ombudsman