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The Investigatory Powers Bill: A serious weakening of protections for...
This is the final part of a two part post. Part 1 looked at the existing position under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. This part will...
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A family that plays together stays together: a happy holiday season for the...
Families should be together at Christmas. That’s the simple message we should take from the merry noises emanating from Rupert Murdoch’s London apartment where, on Monday night, David Cameron, George...
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Some things old, some things new: A clause-by-clause review of the Draft...
Soon after the publication of the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill in November, a number of privacy, surveillance and freedom of expression specialist academics and practitioners gathered at the...
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Investigatory Powers Bill, Bulk Personal Datasets and the ‘Spectre’ of...
Much has been written about the UK government’s proposed new Investigatory Powers Bill (IPB) since it was published for consultation by the Home Office, and formally presented to Parliament, early last...
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People v Murdoch, Part One, Fightback, Press Gang Launches a new campaign
AT THE beginning of 2016 Rupert Murdoch once again dominates British media. David Cameron is back on side. Juries have refused to convict Sun journalists of bribing corrupt police officers. The threat...
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People v Murdoch, Part 2, Engagement – Press Gang
LAST WEEK there were two major announcements about Rupert Murdoch. On Tuesday the Times revealed he was engaged to fellow American citizen Jerry Hall. They’re planning a marriage. On the same day Press...
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Why new regulator could be a game-changing moment for journalism – Steven...
You are unlikely to read about it about in the mainstream press, but this week saw a major step forward for genuinely independent press regulation in the UK. The new press regulator IMPRESS...
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Can the new Charter Protect BBC Independence? – Damian Tambini
2016 is set to be a significant year for the BBC, with a new settlement on the Royal Charter that underpins the Corporation’s governance and funding arrangements due to be agreed. As part of its policy...
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Poland: The Public, The Government And The Media – Beata Klimkiewicz
Recent media regulatory changes in Poland elicited strong reactions from international institutions and the European Union. In his letter to the Polish President Andrzej Duda, Thorbjørn Jagland, the...
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A very brief history of interception in Britain – Bernard Keenan
Britain is in the process of legislating a new system of control over the interception of communication. The Investigatory Powers Bill, currently being debated in draft form, aims to give an...
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Brexit and the BBC: a tough call for the culture secretary? – Damian Tambini
Culture secretary John Whittingdale gave an update on the progress on the renewal of the BBC Charter in a speech at the Oxford Media Convention last week. All the parties, as well as recent select...
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The Trumpification of the US media: why chasing news values distorts politics...
Outside the US, the prospect of Donald Trump being elected president is typically met with a mixture of amusement and alarm. After all, how can a billionaire reality TV star become the most powerful...
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Investigatory Powers Bill, Second Reading, inadequate journalistic protection...
The Investigatory Powers Bill (IPB) has its second reading in the House of Commons today. Although there is much high level resistance to the Bill, relatively little of it has focussed on the impact on...
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FOI: Victory for Transparency as Tribunal orders disclosure of former Prime...
On 22 March 2016 in the case of Webber v Information Commissioner [pdf] (EA/2015/0194) the First-Tier Tribunal ordered disclosure of the details of the “Public Duty Cost Allowance” of up to £115,000 a...
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Cultural cold wars: The risk of anti-‘extremism’ policy for academic freedom...
Universities are under increasing pressure from government to prevent students coming into contact with “extreme” ideas. The view is that students exposed to any kind of views designated “extreme”...
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When Commercialism Trumps Democracy – Victor Pickard
Donald Trump’s ascendance has many enablers, but news media deserve special scrutiny. Television news in particular has popularized Trump—and, in doing so, has turned our political process into a...
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This isn’t public policy: the prelude to the BBC White Paper – Des Freedman
It is hard to know whether the recent rumours about the contents of the forthcoming White Paper on the future of the BBC should be seen as light entertainment or crime drama. Three leading Sunday...
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Four ways John Whittingdale could wreck the BBC – Steven Barnett
Is John Whittingdale the most hostile politician ever to have responsibility for the BBC? When a senior Telegraph journalist called his appointment as culture secretary “an effective declaration of...
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How would Brexit affect data protection, privacy and surveillance laws in...
Successive British governments have passed or tried to pass laws granting wide data sharing and surveillance powers, only for them to founder in the European courts due to conflicts with European...
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Decoding the BBC White Paper – Des Freedman
The good folk at the Cambridge University Conservative Association must be a little disappointed. Having listened to culture secretary John Whittingdale tell them only last month that the disappearance...
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