The Press Complaints Commission has flexed its muscles over internet publication.
Its remit has been extended to include regulation of online video content published by newspapers and magazines. Chairman Sir Christopher Meyer said the move underlined confidence in “common-sense” self-regulation.
It coincides with criticism by a House of Lords committee of EU plans to apply traditional television broadcasting laws to internet broadcasters.
The European Commission wants to increase regulation of internet video content, but the all-party Lords European Union Committee has said “burdensome and inappropriate” rules could undermine the vibrant British new media industry.
In a privacy ruling, the PCC found Hello! magazine breached the privacy of model Elle Macpherson and her children in publishing beach photographs of them taken when they were staying at a private house, with a private beach, in Mustique (Code, Clause 3).
It noted the model had chosen a private holiday location on a secluded island, and was satisfied Hello! could not show the family had no reasonable expectation of privacy there.
Author Niema Ash has sought leave to appeal to the House of Lords over the ruling of Eady J, upheld by the Court of Appeal, that her book breached confidence and infringed the privacy of her former friend, Canadian folk-singer Loreena McKennitt. Her petition argues the decision by the lower courts represents “a significant shift in favour of privacy at the inevitable expense of freedom of expression”.
Associated Newspapers Ltd, publisher of The Mail on Sunday, the newspaper’s editor and a journalist are being prosecuted for alleged contempt over an article relevant to a forthcoming murder trial. The prosecution relates to publication earlier this month [4th Feb] of an interview with a witness in the case of Angelika Kluk, whose body was found in a Glasgow church last September.
The Kent Messenger has been fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £2,500 compensation after admitting an allegation that it had identified the victim of a sexual offence, contrary to Sections 1 and 5 of the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1992. Reportedly, an old friend of the victim who read the article in question realised who the victim was after going to the lengths of doing “detective work”. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Simon Irwin, editorial director of Kent Messenger Group, said it was “far from clear” the newspaper would have lost if it had pleaded not guilty.
The Department for Constitutional Affairs has announced the maximum sentence for people unlawfully trading in, or misusing, personal data will be increased from a fine to two years’ prison in Crown Court, and 12 months’ prison in Magistrates’ Courts once S.154 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 comes into force.
Meanwhile, in a dispute between a roofing contractor and a manufacturer of fibre-cement slates in which the contractor obtained and circulated a copy of an internal letter from an executive of the manufacturing company addressed to other executives, Mr Justice Kitchin has ruled the letter is an ‘original work’ by an employee such that the contractor breached the manufacturer’s copyright and confidence.
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