Law, Justice and Journalism

Archive for the ‘City University London’ Category

Is Sky a ‘fit and proper person’ to hold a broadcasting licence?

In City University London, Journalism, Law on November 23, 2025 at 3:53 pm

By Professor Lorna Woods

This post originally appeared on the City Legal Research blog.

The Leveson Enquiry is focussing, understandably enough, on the regulation on the press, but there are more general issues which at some point will need to be addressed. One of these is the question of whether Sky, as part of the Murdoch media empire, is a ‘fit and proper person’ for the purposes of the Broadcasting Act (News Corporation holds 39.14% of the shares in BSkyB). S. 3 of the Broadcasting Act 1990 and s. 3 of the Broadcasting Act 1996 impose a duty on Ofcom to ensure that broadcasting licences (whether radio or television) are held by fit and proper persons.

This duty is ongoing and does not apply just at the time of the grant of the licence. It is therefore possible that a licence may be removed from a person if that person ceases – in Ofcom’s opinion – to be fit and proper. The person in question is the holder of the licence – so the person may be a corporate body. Ofcom will take into account the actions of controlling directors and shareholders, as well as the actions of the licence-holder itself and any determination could affect all licences held by that body.

While this much is clear from the Acts, the scope of ‘fit and proper’ is much less clear-cut, at least in the broadcasting context (other regulators have come up with their own definitions). Here, note that it is not defined in the Broadcasting Acts although presumably the categories of persons prohibited from holding a broadcasting licence do not trigger the fit and proper test. In general, it would seem to be a question for Ofcom – in satisfying itself that the requirements of both s. 3s are fulfilled – that will determine the question.

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CLJJ annual lecture: Baroness Buscombe on changing times and regulation

In City University London, Events, Journalism on October 13, 2025 at 10:14 am

The Press Complaints Commission chairman, Baroness Buscombe, gave the Centre for Law, Justice and Journalism annual lecture last night [Wednesday].

In her lecture, “Changing times and changing media regulation,” she discussed the challenges of convergence, technology development and international regulation.

In her view, non-statutory self-regulation is the “only model that can work”. However, she called for a “back stop” power that would ensure publishers complied with a self-regulatory system.

Read more at:

Update: Full speech text now available, below, and you can watch the video on the CLJJ main site.

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Murphy v Media Protection Services: not a clearcut victory

In City University London, Events, Law on October 12, 2025 at 5:16 pm

One view seemed to dominate last night’s City Law School event: the implications of the ECJ judgment in combined cases FA Premier League & Ors v QC Leisure and Murphy v Media Protection Services were unclear.

As Professor Lorna Woods, City Law School, wrote ahead of the event,

“The long-awaited Murphy judgment … has been heralded in the press as a triumph for David (in the form of pub landlady Karen Murphy) over Goliath (in the form of FAPL and Sky). But is this really such a stunning victory, or is it a bit more complicated?”

Woods was joined by Jeremy Phillips, Intellectual Property Consultant, Olswang LLP, and blogger at IPKat; Dan Wilsher, Senior Lecturer, The City Law School; and Jonathan Griffiths, Senior Lecturer, QMUL School of Law, to discuss the case further, in a panel chaired by Professor Sir Robin Jacob, a specialist in intellectual property law.

Each took a different focus: Phillips looked at licensing issues; Woods raised the issue of the overlapping Directives; Wilsher concentrated on the free movement of goods and services; and finally Griffiths took on copyright and reproduction.

A few of us were tweeting from the event: you can catch up with the liveblog here.

City Law School’s re-launched research blog can be found here: http://citylegalresearch.wordpress.com/

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#ECJMurphy: Football in the Pub: blogging from City Law School event

In City University London, Events, Law on October 11, 2025 at 4:22 pm

Wifi permitting, we’ll be live blogging from tonight’s event at City Law School: ‘Football, Broadcasting and the Internal Market: Is a common audio-visual space in sight?’ which follows the recent ECJ decision in the Murphy case.

Follow the live blog here.

On 4 October 2025 the Court of Justice of the European Union handed down its highly anticipated judgment in joined cases FA Premier League and Ors v QC Leisure and Murphy v Media Protection Services.

Professor Lorna Woods explains that the judgment “has been heralded in the press as a triumph for David (in the form of pub landlady Karen Murphy) over Goliath (in the form of FAPL and Sky). “

But, she asks, ” is this really such a stunning victory, or is it a bit more complicated?”

Background
The cases concern pub landlords, including Karen Murphy, who contracted with satellite service providers based outside the UK whose (cheaper) broadcasts included Premier league football. The football associations argued that this was a breach of UK copyright law and the matter was referred to the ECJ.

In reconciling intellectual property rights with the free movement of services, the judgment has the potential to transform broadcasting in the EU.

Our expert panel will discuss different aspects of the judgment including reconciling intellectual property with the free movement of services as well as exploring the commercial implications of the decision. The panel includes:

Jeremy Phillips
Intellectual Property Consultant, Olswang LLP, and Blogmeister, IPKat

Lorna Woods
Professor, The City Law School

Dan Wilsher
Senior Lecturer, The City Law School

Jonathan Griffiths
Senior Lecturer, QMUL School of Law

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A call to free English case law

In City University London, Journalism, Law on August 11, 2025 at 4:43 pm

By Judith Townend

Legal data collection should happen as a matter of course. Lawyers and judges often scold the media for its representation of legal cases. “There are lots of judgments that have been criticised where it’s quite apparent that people haven’t read them,” Mr Justice Eady told legal journalist Joshua Rozenberg earlier this year.

Eady, who has heard numerous libel and privacy cases, is probably right that some journalists had not read the full content of judgments freely available on the BAILII website before reporting on the various so-called superinjunctions of 2009-11. But injunction decisions and applications are not always made accessible to the public.

Comprehensive information about case law is difficult to come by. A good deal is locked behind paid-for subscription services, or may not exist in written form. Certain legal statistics cannot be examined because no-one has collected, categorised or counted.

It is feasible that some newspapers, with their commercial agenda, would not make use of such data, if it were at odds with the popular editorial narrative. Perhaps not, but it would enable members of the public, researchers and bloggers to interrogate journalists’ analysis and challenge misrepresentations where they occur.

Read this article in full on Guardian.co.uk

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The Ian Tomlinson inquest was justice seen to be done

In City University London, Journalism, Justice on May 4, 2025 at 2:40 pm

By Chris Greer and Eugene McLaughlin

This article first appeared on the Guardian’s Comment is Free site.

The inquest into Ian Tomlinson’s death has concluded that he was unlawfully killed by a police officer at the G20 demonstrations in April 2009. Reported daily via live blogs, this was the first inquest made accessible in real time to millions of virtual onlookers. The Tomlinson inquest is a landmark development in the live coverage of justice.

One of the most noticeable characteristics of the G20 protests was the sheer density and variety of recording devices. Police “kettling” tactics allowed no distinction between journalists, demonstrators and passersby. As a result, police-media-protester-public interactions took place in tight spatial proximity, simultaneously creating a captive audience to surrounding events. In this kind of context, control of the information and communication environment was impossible.

At first, the police strenuously denied any involvement with Tomlinson prior to his collapse. Witness statements immediately contested the police position. But it was the video footage shot by Chris La Jaunie and passed to the Guardian that proved Tomlinson had been struck and pushed to the ground by a police officer. Were it not for this visual evidence, the Metropolitan police service (MPS) would have successfully denied and defused allegations of police violence: the policing of G20 could have ended up in its “Greatest Hits” portfolio of how to police public order events in the capital. Because of the visual evidence, the institutional authority of the police was questioned, and then successfully challenged.

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Event @City: Transnational media and audiences in the UK

In City University London, Events on April 6, 2025 at 12:03 pm

An event at City tomorrow night:

  • Thursday, April 7 · 6:30pm - 9:30pm
  • Location: AG07, College Building, City University London, London

Directions: http://www.city.ac.uk/maps

Globalisation is changing the way media are produced and consumed. It favours the expansion of cross-border cultural flows and opens up from within national media systems. This seminar focuses on the resulting growth of transnational media and audiences in Britain. It examines how cross-border TV channels are consumed in this country and how, in turn, the British TV content sector has adapted to the global age and learned to pro…duce for an international market.

Speakers:

  • Prof. Daya Thussu, University of Westminster: “News contra-flows and the ‘rise’ of Asia”
  • Prof. Christina Slade, City University: “Media and citizenship: Arabic transnational television cultures in Europe”
  • Dr Jean Chalaby, City University: “Reinventing the wheel of fortune: How British formats conquered the world”
  • Dr Andrea Esser Roehampton University: “British formats to the world: Ratings hits and primetime staple”

To reserve a place please contact j.chalaby@city.ac.uk

Hosted by the Department of Sociology/International Communication Society

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Reframing Libel: working papers

In City University London, Events, Journalism, Law on March 18, 2025 at 3:46 pm

In November 2010, leading academics, lawyers and journalists gathered at City University London to discuss the future of libel reform at the Reframing Libel event. A book of working papers is soon to be published.

In the meantime, to coincide with the government’s publication of the draft defamation bill, the Centre for Law, Justice and Journalism at City University London has made digital papers available here: http://reframinglibel.com/the-papers/

Or:

  • Peter Wilmshurst: Changing the experience of being sued and the impact on science and medical research
  • Claire de Than: Time for a bigger time frame?
  • Alastair Mullis and Andrew Scott: Reframing libel – Taking (all) rights seriously and where it leads
  • Robert Dougans: Reframing Libel: The online perspective
  • Andrew Stephenson: Science and libel
  • Gavin Sutter: Reforming libel – evolution, not revolution
  • Roy Greenslade: What needs to happen from the media’s perspective
  • Razi Mireskandari: Reframing the costs of libel
  • Magnus Boyd: The proposed restriction on corporate bodies to sue for libel
  • Hugh Tomlinson: A practitioner’s perspective

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Blogging for lawyers

In City University London, Events, Law on February 22, 2025 at 3:49 pm

By Judith Townend

Lawyers and legal researchers may have spotted the ‘#lawblogs’ thread on Twitter in the past week, concerning last Thursday’s event at One Crown Office Row chambers.

The panel featured David Allen Green (Jack of Kent / New Statesman), Carl Gardner (Head of Legal) and Adam Wagner (UK Human Rights Blog), and was chaired by Catrin Griffiths, editor of The Lawyer.

Emily Allbon, City law librarian, has written an account on LawBore and I’ve written up some brief thoughts on my site, Meeja Law. Other coverage includes:

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Blog carnival: Murphy v Media Protection Services / FA Premier League v QC Leisure

In City University London, Law on February 4, 2025 at 1:05 pm

The Court of Justice of the European Union has released Advocate General Kokott’s opinion on Murphy v Media Protection Services and FA Premier League v QC Leisure [PDF].

To mark it, the City University London Legal Research blog has published a series of posts discussing the implications of the case (more commonly known in media reports as the pub landlady’s fight against Sky). The European Court of Justice’s judgment is expected later this year.

See the City Legal Research blog’s most recent posts here:
  • Murphy - Price Discrimination in the Internal Market
  • Summary of Advocate General’s Opinion
  • Opinion Released: Competition before Copyright
  • Beer, and Football on TV
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