DCLG v. Information Commissioner & WR [2012] UKUT I have previously posted on the decision leading to this successful appeal by the Planning Inspectorate, against an order that they produce their legal advice concerning a planning appeal. The decision of the First-Tier Tribunal in favour of disclosure was reversed by a strong Upper Tribunal, chaired [...]
Archive for the ‘Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression’ Category
Anemometers and wind farms once more: PINS now win the day
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case comments, Case law, Environment, European, Freedom of Information, In the news on May 22, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Comment: How will the Defamation Bill protect free speech?
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, Defamation / Libel, In the news, tagged Defamation Bill, free expression, libel reform, Queen's Speech on May 20, 2012 | 1 Comment »
As expected, last week’s Queen’s Speech included plans to reform libel law. This follows a concerted campaign to improve protection of the right to free expression and bring greater clarity to England’s libel law. But the question for those who wanted to see reform, now the Defamation Bill has been published, is whether the reforms [...]
Peace campaigner evicted from Parliament Square using new law – Marina Wheeler
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Art. 11 | Freedom of Association, Case comments, Housing, Politics / Public Order, tagged Maria Gallastegui, Parliament square, Protest, protest rights on May 17, 2012 | 2 Comments »
R (on the application of Maria Gallastegui) v Westminster City Council [2012] EWHC 1123 (Admin) - Read judgment On 27 April 2012, Maria Gallastegui, a peace campaigner and resident of the East pavement of Parliament Square since 2006, lost her legal battle to continue her 24 hour, tented vigil in protest against the folly of [...]
Libel on the internet: Christian author takes on Dawkins and Amazon
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case comments, Case summaries, Costs and Procedure, Damages, Defamation / Libel, In the news, tagged abuse of process, blogs, comment thread, costs, human rights, internet, Libel on May 16, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Mcgrath v Dawkins, Amazon and others [2012] EWHC B3 (QB) -read judgment In an interesting ruling on a strike-out action against a libel claim, a High Court judge has delineated the scope for defamation in blog posts and discussion threads where the audience is small and the libel limited. Background The claimant, C, is the author [...]
Censure of councillor for “sarcastic, lampooning and disrespectful” blog breached his free speech rights
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, BLOG POSTS, Case comments, Case law, Case summaries, tagged blogging, blogs, human rights, Lewis Malcolm Calver, local government, Wales on May 7, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Calver, R (on the application of) v The Adjudication Panel for Wales [2012] EWHC 1172 (Admin) - Read judgment The decision to censure a Welsh councillor for comments on his blog was a disproportionate interference with his right to freedom of expression, the High Court has ruled. This right requires a broad interpretation of what counts [...]
Battle of the bus lanes: Addison Lee injuncted by High Court
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case summaries, Discrimination, Politics / Public Order, tagged Addison Lee on May 3, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Transport for London (TfL) v Griffin & Ors [2012] EWHC 1105 (QB) - Read Judgment Transport for London (TfL) have succeeded in their High Court application for an injunction restraining Addison Lee Taxis from encouraging drivers to use London bus lanes. Mr Justice Eder ruled that the injunction would not breach Addison Lee Chairman John Griffin’s free expression [...]
Hate speech and the meaning of “unacceptable behaviour”
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case summaries, Margin of Appreciation on April 26, 2012 |
Raed Mahajna v Secretary of State for the Home Department IA/21/21631/2011 – read judgment 1 Crown Office Row’s Neil Sheldon appeared for the Secretary of State in this case. He is not the writer of this post. Late last year I posted about the case of Mr Mahajna, a national of Israel (but of Palestinian [...]
“Thinking the unthinkable”? Freedom of information and the NHS Risk Register – Robin Hopkins
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case summaries, Freedom of Information, Medical, Politics / Public Order, tagged NHS Risk Register on April 16, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Department of Health v IC, Healey and Cecil(EA/2011/0286 & EA/2011/0287) - Read Decision In a recent post, Panopticon brought you, hot-off-the-press, the Tribunal’s decision in the much-publicised case involving publication, under Freedom of Information Law, of the NHS Risk Register. Somewhat less hot-off-the-press are my observations. This is a very important decision, both for its engagement [...]
The rising cost of free speech: Reynolds, contempt and Twitter
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, BLOG POSTS, Defamation / Libel, Features, In the news, Judges and Juries, tagged Flood v The Times, free speech, Libel, reynolds, Twitter on April 12, 2012 |
Free speech is under attack. Or so it seems. The last few weeks have been abuzz with stories to do with free speech: a Supreme Court ruling on the Reynolds defence to libel; contempt of court proceedings against an MP for comments made in a book and the latest in a growing line of criminal [...]
Security bodies, private emails: parallels between the UK and US – Robin Hopkins
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case comments, Freedom of Information, Politics / Public Order, Terrorism, tagged extraordinary rendition, freedom of information on April 12, 2012 |
Today was one of striking parallels between the USA and the UK in terms of litigation concerned with access to information. APPGER and security bodies First, one of The Independent‘s main stories this morning concerned a case brought in the US by the UK’s All Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition (APPGER). Readers will recall that [...]
Common-law open justice lets in the light; Strasbourg not the key
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case comments, Case law, Criminal, Freedom of Information, International, Media on April 10, 2012 | 4 Comments »
R (o.t.a Guardian Newspapers) v. City of Westminster Magistrates Court, USA as Interested Party, 3 April 2012, Court of Appeal: read judgment No, not a case about secret trials, but about the way in which newspapers can get hold of court papers in open oral hearings. And, as we shall see, it led to a [...]
BBC interview with terror suspect Barbar Ahmad
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Criminal, In the news, Terrorism on April 6, 2012 | 10 Comments »
I highly recommend Dominic Casciani’s excellent BBC Newsnight piece on Barbar Ahmad, which is currently available on iPlayer (UK only). Ahmad’s case cuts across a number of different rights controversies. The BBC challenged the Ministry of Justice’s initial refusal to allow an interview with the terrorist suspect, who is currently held at a maximum security [...]
The dangers of data snooping – Angela Patrick
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, Criminal, In the news, Police, Politics / Public Order, Technology, tagged Communications Data Bill 2008, data snooping, surveillance on April 6, 2012 | 6 Comments »
Civil liberties and the coalition have been happily filling the political pages this week. The damning conclusion of the Joint Committee on Human Rights that there is no evidence to justify expanding closed proceedings (expertly dissected by Rosalind English earlier in the week) vied for column inches with leaks that the Government planned to introduce [...]
Kettling: Can a public interest motive justify a deprivation of liberty or not? – Robert Wastell
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Art. 11 | Freedom of Association, Art. 5 | Right to Liberty, Case comments, Case summaries, Police, Politics / Public Order on April 2, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Austin & Others v. The United Kingdom, [2012] ECHR 459, 15th March 2012 – read judgment The Grand Chamber of the ECtHR recently tackled the question of whether the police tactic of “kettling” (verb, UK, of the police – to contain demonstrators in a confined area) amounted to a deprivation of the liberty of four [...]





Police denied TV footage of Dale Farm evictions
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case comments, Case summaries, In the news, Politics / Public Order, tagged Dale Farm evictions, Freedom of Expression, Police, police investigations on May 24, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
BSkyB and another, R(on the application of) v Chelmsford Crown Court [2012] EWHC 1295 (Admin) – read judgment The police failed to satisfy the court that their need for footage taken by TV organisations was likely to be of substantial value to criminal investigations and therefore would be a justified interference with the rights of [...]
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