October 2013 – David Banks Media Law

Phonehacking Trial, Day 4

Posted by David Bankson October 31, 2013October 31, 2013in Journalism Ethics, Media Law1 Comment

WELL, the phonehacking trial continues to deliver, and this is just the opening.

Worth noting, that it is just that, the prosecution opening. It’s a trial, there’s more to follow. It’s scheduled to go on until Easter, there is a lot more to follow from prosecution and defence.

I am being asked a few questions on Twitter about what it is safe to tweet and blog. Not from reporters at court, many of whom are very experienced journalists and well able to produce reports compliant with reporting restrictions, but from bloggers and tweeters who are commenting on the case.

There have been a number of court orders made in this case, primarily to prevent prejudice to this and other cases. I gather that warnings have been issued over some tweets made in the past couple of days. Caution is advised, the current Attorney General, Dominic Grieve QC MP, is keen as mustard when it comes to contempt and has said in the past that he would issue contempt proceedings against an individual blogger or tweeter if the need arose. Fair warning.

When reporting proceedings it is always wise to stick to what has been said in court, in front of the jury, that way you are not revealing to them anything they do not already know.

As a general rule do not make reference to any other proceedings, past or pending, you may know about as that risks prejudicing this trial or any future trials.

Furthermore, do not do anything that vilifies a witness, that might put them off testifying, that could also be a contempt. In the archive of this site you will find a quick guide to avoiding contempt of court which you might find useful.

Anyway, onto the coverage of today.

UPDATE

Here’s The Daily Beast coverage, by @PeterJukes, who has also done a fine job of livetweeting the opening.

And here is the coverage on the HackedOff website.

That’s it early doors, as usual if anything later catches my eye, or is pointed out to me, I’ll add it. Once again, if you’re toiling away behind the paywall of The Sun or The Times and want to send me links for inclusion, please do so.

And if you’re tempted to tweet, in the words of the great Sgt Phil Esterhaus: Let’s be careful out there.

Phonehacking Trial Day 3

Posted by David Bankson October 30, 2013October 30, 2013in Uncategorized2 Comments

THE livetweeting of today’s proceedings conveyed the drama of events at the Old Bailey as three of the defendants all entered guilty pleas.

You can Guardian coverage here.

Daily Mail here.

The Independent here.

The Daily Mirror here.

Daily Telegraph here.

Hacked Off’s take on it here.

That’s it for now, update later tonight if any more copy catches my eye, feel free to tip me off to anything you think particularly well done. If Times or Sun staff want to lob me a link over their paywall, I’ll be happy to include it here.

UPDATE

Link to coverage by The Drum’s James Doleman here.

Phone Hacking Trial, Day 2

Posted by David Bankson October 29, 2013October 29, 2013in Uncategorized1 Comment

EARLY post, so not all the papers are carrying their coverage yet. I will update later if they file tonight.

Day 2 was slow again and dominated by jury selection it seems, but the Mr Justice Saunders got things under way before the end of the afternoon and it was events outside court, or rather a Private Eye cover that was centre of attention.

Reported in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Drum, and at Hacked Off.

All went for the judge’s extensive warning to the jury not to be swayed by outside coverage. not to go Googling or looking on Twitter or Facebook for items about the trial or its background.

The Attorney General’s office announced in the afternoon it would not be pursuing Private Eye for contempt. No real surprise, it was miles away from being in contempt and the judge’s remarks were a relatively mild admonition to ignore it. If he had been gravely concerned by it, Ian Hislop would have been ordered to court tomorrow to explain himself, which many a judge has done in the past to errant editors.

Still, it livened up Day 2. Prosecution opening tomorrow, which we’re told can be live tweeted.

Update, here’s coverage from The Independent, The Mirror and the Daily Express

It particularly love the line by Mr Justice Saunders warning jurors away from blogs written by politicians and actors on subjects ‘they know very little about.’ Who can he mean?

Phone Hacking Trials

Posted by David Bankson October 25, 2013October 25, 2013in Uncategorized7 Comments

The trials over alleged phone hacking and associated matters are due to get under way next week.

I will carry a daily digest of news, links to the best reports and such commentary as the Contempt of Court Act 1981 and any other restrictions will safely allow.

Do drop by.

If you spot any good coverage I’ve missed, send me a link, or drop me a line on Twitter @DBanksy