August 12th, 2008 § § permalink
The UK has been criticised by the UN Human Rights Commitee for it’s libel law.
It gets the finger wagging for libel practice, amongst a fair bit of other stuff (I’m at work now so I’ll read it properly later), in the report in to the implementation of the International Covenent on Civil and Political Rights.
The report is here (and also [[download:ccpr.c.gbr.co.6.doc:text:here:]]):
25. The Committee is concerned that the State party’s practical application of the law of libel has served to discourage critical media reporting on matters of serious public interest, adversely affecting the ability of scholars and journalists to publish their work, including through the phenomenon known as “libel tourism.” The advent of the internet and the international distribution of foreign media also creates the danger that a State party’s unduly restrictive libel law will affect freedom of expression world-wide on matters of valid public interest. (art.19)
The State party should re-examine its technical doctrines of libel law, and consider the utility of a so-called “public figure” exception, requiring proof by the plaintiff of actual malice in order to go forward on actions concerning reporting on public officials and prominent public figures, as well as limiting the requirement that defendants reimburse a plaintiff’s lawyers fees and costs regardless of scale, including Conditional Fee Agreements and so-called “Success Fees”, especially insofar as these may have forced defendant publications to settle without airing valid defences. The ability to resolve cases through enhanced pleading requirements (e.g., requiring a plaintiff to make some preliminary showing of falsity and absence of ordinary journalistic standards) might also be considered.
Via
August 12th, 2008 § § permalink
It’s that man again, Mr Justice Eady.
Out-Law:
Defamation on internet bulletin boards is more like slander than libel, a High Court judge has ruled. Mr Justice Eady said that bulletin board discussions are characterised by “give and take” and should be considered in that context.
In a multi-defendant lawsuit concerning posts on an investors’ bulletin board, Mr Justice Eady said that comments on a board are not to be taken in the same context as those in, for example, a newspaper article.
He said that the casual, conversational nature of bulletin boards meant that defamatory comments were more like slander than libel. Slander relates generally to spoken comments and libel generally to written and published ones. In English law it is harder to win damages for slander than libel.
“[Bulletin board posts] are rather like contributions to a casual conversation (the analogy sometimes being drawn with people chatting in a bar) which people simply note before moving on; they are often uninhibited, casual and ill thought out,” he said in his ruling. “Those who participate know this and expect a certain amount of repartee or ‘give and take’.”
“When considered in the context of defamation law, therefore, communications of this kind are much more akin to slanders (this cause of action being nowadays relatively rare) than to the usual, more permanent kind of communications found in libel actions,” said the ruling. “People do not often take a ‘thread’ and go through it as a whole like a newspaper article. They tend to read the remarks, make their own contributions if they feel inclined, and think no more about it.”
Via
August 11th, 2008 § § permalink
You’re in a strange place, the locals seem friendly-ish. They seem to be using words that you recognise but they’re using them, differently.
What do they mean? What are they trying to communicate? Is it all a code? If only you had some way to translate the language.
Well, now you can find you own way, with confidence, through the strange land of the Right Wing Comments. Along with your passport and your conjunctivitis injection, don’t forget your Right-Wing Phrasebook.
£499.99 from any capitalist bookshop.
August 11th, 2008 § § permalink
From the sounds of it, this Ian Oakley affair has stunned most of the Conservative blogosphere into speechlessness…
Sara Bedford:
Tonight I set myself the task of checking all 267 blogs listed as Conservative on the Total Politics web site to see if I was doing them a disservice. Not a pleasant task, I can tell you!
Of those 267, just four mention Ian Oakley at all.
- Iain Dale
- Conservative Home
- Kernal of Truth
- Letters from a Tory
August 10th, 2008 § § permalink
August 9th, 2008 § § permalink
August 8th, 2008 § § permalink
August 8th, 2008 § § permalink
I happened across a blog called Pixeloo.
He (I presume) does proper pictures (with paints an’ everything) and Photoshop stuff, but what he seems to mainly do is to render cartoon characters as though they are real people, but keeping the cartoon proportions.
This one’s Homer (obviously) but he has also done Jessica Rabbit and Mario, amongst others.
Go to his (or her) site and click on the pictures to enlarge, they’re pretty bloody good.
[[image:realhomer.jpg:Real Homer:center:0]]
August 7th, 2008 § § permalink
I don’t normally announce changes to my blogroll but I thought these two deserve it.
First up, D-Notice.
Apologies, old chap, I thought I’d added you a while back. But you’re there now.
Secondly, The Sun – Tabloid Lies. A new group blog chronicling Murdochs’ big seller, The Sun, and all the bullshit and blagging that goes with it.
Oh, see you the other side of the weekend.
August 6th, 2008 § § permalink
Jeremy Clarkson:
I do not know many people from the world of television. I have not been to Jonathan Ross’s house. He’s never been to mine. But those that I do meet, with the exception of Piers Morgan, are mostly very ordinary people with very ordinary lives. They do not shout: “Do you know who I am?” at every train guard and maître d’. They do not quaff champagne or gorge on peach and peacock. And mostly they earn much less than you think.
And yet every single one of them is fair game for those members of the press that, deprived of funds to chase down proper stories, see them as the cheap option. I urge you all to think about that next time you’re thumbing through Heat magazine and you come across a picture of some actress with stretch marks. Just imagine how that picture makes her feel. And how it makes her children feel.
