Case Preview: Flood v Times Newspapers in the Supreme Court – allegation, balance and judgment – Hugh Tomlinson QC

On Monday and Tuesday 17 and 18 October 2011 the Supreme Court (Lords Phillips, Brown, Mance, Clarke and Dyson) will hear the appeal of the defendant, Times Newspapers, against the decision of the Court of Appeal ([2010] EWCA Civ 804) that the publication of an article on 2 June 2006 was not covered by Reynolds privilege. This is only the second time that the highest court has considered the application of the “responsible publication in the public interest”, first established by the House of Lords in Reynolds v Times Newspapers ([2001] 2 AC 127) nearly 12 years ago. The Court is not being invited to engage in a radical reconsideration of the limits of this defence but rather to consider questions of balance and the limits of editorial discretion.

The story most papers missed: Dacre calls for statutory backstop – Martin Moore

Talk about missing the story. The Sun, the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, The Guardian, even Newsnight all failed to lead with the genuinely newsworthy aspect of Wednesday’s Leveson Inquiry seminars.

The Sun highlighted Paul Dacre and Kelvin MacKenzie’s attacks on David Cameron – for setting up the Inquiry in the first place.