News: Conservative Strategist Lynton Crosby and an Australian twitter libel action

The Conservative Party’s Australian election strategist, Lynton Crosby, has brought defamation proceedings against a Labour politician in the Federal Court in Australia over an alleged defamatory tweet.  The action is being brought by Mr Crosby and his business partner, Mark Textor over a tweet from Mike Kelly, a Federal Labor Politician who is now the Minister for Defence Materiel.  He tweets as @MikeKellyMP. 

Case law, Northern Ireland, HL (a minor) v Facebook, How can the courts manage the Facebook phenomenon? – Rosalind English

HL (A Minor) v Facebook Incorporated, The Northern Health and Social Care Trust, The Department of Justice for Northern Ireland and others  [2013] NIQB 25.  In this somewhat chaotic action, the plaintiff sued ten defendants, in anonymised form by her father and next friend.  

Here come the (thought) police – David Banks

A COUPLE of jurors have been in the news recently, one for speaking his mind in court, one for speaking his mind on Facebook. One is now facing a contempt charge after he allegedly committed his thoughts on being chosen to try a man charged with sexual offences against a child to his Facebook page. He may be regretting being quite so frank in allegedly saying he “wanted to fuck up a paedophile.”

Free speech … what’s the point? – Paul Bernal

The whole idea of ‘free speech’ has had a few challenges this last week or so. The Paris Brown saga (about which I’ve written here), the decision by the BBC not to play ‘Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead’ though it reached number two in the charts, the various attempts to block protests at Margaret Thatcher’s funeral, the late amendments to the Defamation Act to remove the proposed controls over companies’ abilities to sue for libel, and the arrival in court of the Sally Bercow/Lord McAlpine twitter defamation trial about which I wrote this in December).

Outrageous Opinion on Social Media: The Correct Role of the Law – Oliver O’Callaghan

Barely a week passes without another spate of Twitter controversies; last week’s protagonists included the Youth Police Commissioner of Kent, Paris Brown, forced to resign over her past ‘youthful indiscretions’ on the social networking site; Irish cricketer John Mooney was reprimanded by his employer for some ill-considered remarks on the passing of Margaret Thatcher; while footballer Joey Barton was threatened with legal action over his wearily familiar and uncouth pronouncements on a fellow player.

Social media: who cares? – Matt Himsworth

It is dangerous for companies and high profile individuals to assume that social media is just a playground where people just tell others what they’ve had for dinner and take photographs of snow in their back garden.

That does happen (far too often) but social media, and other online platforms, are far more than just that – they are defining the way that brands and reputations are viewed.

Standing up to bullies – the legal implications of the disturbing rise of “creepshots” and “revenge porn” – Matt Himsworth

Recent media coverage, particularly in the Guardian reveals a worrying new trend in our society – the dissemination of “creepshots” and “revenge porn” online, ruining reputations and, often, lives.

To the uninitiated, creepshots are surreptitiously taken photographs, usually sexual in nature, mostly of women (often very young women) and revenge porn is a category of explicit photographs and videos, usually taken with consent at the time, (for private use in relationships) but later used to bully, intimidate or blackmail vulnerable individuals (again, largely young women).

Twitter enters the courts in Ontario – Adam Lazier

Under a policy that came into force on February 1, journalist are now allowed to tweet and live-blog proceedings in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the province’s court that hears civil and major criminal proceedings.  Although the policy has a number of limitations, it marks an important step forward for open courts in Ontario.

News: Northern Ireland Judge awards £35,000 damages for anonymous Facebook libels

On 6 February 2013, in the High Court in Belfast, Mr Justice McCloskey awarded libel damages against an unidentified anonymous individual who abused two directors and a member of staff at a Belfast company.  The plaintiffs’ claim against Facebook Ireland Limited was dismissed.

Case Law: Cruddas v Adams, Damages of £45,000 for a blog and Twitter Libel

In a judgment handed down on 4 February 2013 ([2013] EWHC 145 (QB)) Mr Justice Eady awarded the former Conservative Party treasurer, Peter Cruddas, defamation damages of £45,000 in respect of 9 blogs and 12 tweets by published by lobbyist Mark Adams.