Libel tourism, the common law invention of privacy and Justice Eady

Unusually, in the UK, the introduction of Article 8 of the ECHR has occurred due to judicial innovation not a constitutional protection directly. J. Eady here speaks about his work in the Moseley case and his lack of belief in 'libel tourism', whereby foreign celebrities and billionaires bring actions in his courtroom to protect their reputations worldwide. This was shortly followed by Tiger Woods' injunction against British newspapers.

Council of Europe work on Article 10

See various meeting documents here and here. The Council has various working groups that coordinate the 47 members and 5 observers' work on freedom of expression, in connection with Article 10 of the European Convention.

Human Rights Day – 10 December “Human rights must go online!”

Press Release - 940(2009) Statement by Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland Strasbourg, 09.12.2009 – The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, today gave the following message to mark Human Rights Day: “Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right, enshrined in the European Convention on Human rights and a pillar of the Europe we know today. We live in an age of technological innovation and advancing globalisation, where freedom of expression must continue to be central to our vision of Europe. The Internet is a space of creativity and enormous opportunity, but it can also present threats to our privacy, and dangers related to all sorts of cybercrime. We must never forget that the Internet can be (mis)used to promote discrimination and hatred. That is why freedom of expression is not an absolute right, it is a right that comes with responsibility. So it must be on the Internet. On the occasion of International Human Rights day and recognising the many essential advances in protecting and promoting human rights, the Council of Europe will seek close cooperation with governments and the private sector to make sure that human rights are both promoted and protected from abuse online”.

Defamation law and free speech

An interesting Article 19 piece on the effects of defamation damages worldwide.

Internet Governance Forum and censorship in Egypt

Interesting to see that the 4th annual United Nations meeting on Internet governance is taking place in the country which is 143rd on the list of media freedoms and with Reporters Without Frontiers formally protesting about the dictatorship's treatment of bloggers:

“Egypt’s legitimacy to host such a meeting is questionable as it has repeatedly been guilty of violations of online free expression,” Reporters Without Borders said. “It is astonishing that a government that is openly hostile to Internet users is assigned the organisation of an international meeting on the Internet’s future. Egypt is one of the enemies of the Internet and if Internet governance requires a degree of regulation, it should be of a liberal nature and not the kind that the Egyptian government would like to impose.”

There have four reminders of Egypt’s readiness to censor the Internet in the past two weeks alone. Police arrested two young bloggers, Mohamed Adel, 20, and Amr Osama, 19, and their lawyer, Amr Ezz, in central Cairo on the night of 3 November on charges of “spreading false news and rumours liable to disturb the peace” and gave them a beating after escorting them to El-Azbakeya police station. They were released the next morning. Adel was previously detained for three months and tortured after being arrested in November 2008. At the end of October, the authorities abandoned an investigation into a police officer, Ashraf Aglan, and his brother, Ahmed Aglan, who attacked another blogger, Wael Abbas (see his blog http://misrdigital.blogspirit.com/). The prosecutor said it was dropped for lack of evidence although three medical reports confirm Abbas’ injuries. Ayman Nour, a human rights lawyer who defends freedom of expression, was forbidden to leave the country on 4 November, as he was about to fly to the United States. He was given no reason for the ban.

Global Media Law and Policy Newsletter

This weekly newsletter is an excellent source of current news about media law and freedom of expression litigation.

Tribunal appeal: Wilders wins right to enter UK to show film

Unsurprisingly the politically-motivated decision by the now-former Home Secretary to ban a controversial Dutch politician from the UK has been overturned on appeal.

"Substantial evidence of actual harm would be needed before it would be proper for a government to prevent the expression and discussion of matters that might form the opinions of legislators, policy makers and voters,"Judge CMG Ockelton, who chaired the tribunal, said. The ruling said there had been no evidence of public order problems or damage to community relations as a result of a previous visit by Wilders to Britain.

"It was more important to allow free speech than to take restrictive action speculatively," said Ockelton. The judgment goes further, saying that even if there were evidence that Wilders posed a threat to public order it would still not have been necessary to ban him because the police would have been able to ensure no disorder took place and remove him if there was trouble.