Case Law, Australia: Dank v Nationwide News Pty Ltd: Twenty days in Stephen Dank’s defamation trial but Zero Damages – Justin Castelan

Since 2013, the Australian sporting landscape has been dominated, not by any particularly amazing footballer, cricketer or athlete. No, it has been dominated by Stephen Dank – “sports scientist”. He is the man responsible for bringing into the Australian consciousness a range of strange sounding peptides, unknown Mexican amino acids and apparently useful horse supplements. He also brought them into the bloodstreams of elite sportsmen across different footballing codes in different states and for different teams.

Law and Media Round Up – 4 April 2016

The Easter Legal Term begins tomorrow and ends on 27 May 2016.  This looks like being another quiet term for media lawyers with only three libel trials listed, none against media defendants.  In addition, there is one media law appeal due to be heard by the Court of Appeal.

Case Law, Strasbourg: Sousa Goucha v. Portugal, Failure to prosecute homophobic “joke” not a breach of Article 8 – Hugh Tomlinson QC

In the case of Sousa Goucha v Portugal ([2016] ECHR 284) the Fourth Section of the European Court of Human Rights held that the dismissal of a domestic defamation action by a gay television presenter was not a breach of his Article 8 right to reputation or of the prohibition of discrimination in Article 14.  The Court deferred to the reasoning of the domestic court that a “joke” suggesting that the applicant was female was not defamatory.

Case Preview, Northern Ireland: CG v Facebook Ireland, Facebook appeals damages award in “Keeping Kids Safe from Predators” case – Aidan Wills

On Monday and Tuesday, 4 and 5 April 2016 the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland will hear an appeal from the judgment of Stephens J in CG v Facebook Ireland Ltd & Anor [2015] NIQB 11.  The case will require the Court to determine a number of important issues of principle relating to intermediary liability.

The Sun and IPSO: It’s obvious who is the boss – Brian Cathcart

Once again Rupert Murdoch’s Sun has lost a case before IPSO and once again the so called regulator has let the paper off with a slap on the wrist. All those promises that IPSO would stand up to big national newspapers are proving predictably hollow.

FOI: Victory for Transparency as Tribunal orders disclosure of former Prime Ministers expenses – Gabriel Webber

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 year provided to former Prime Ministers.

Can you ever remove nasty internet content about yourself? – Andres Guadamuz

For the last couple of years, journalist Dune Lawrence has been subject to constant harassment. She wrote several articles about an investment firm, and the owner initiated an online defamation campaign against her and other targets. He posted images of her to his website and called her a racist, a fraud, incompetent and dumb, among many other insults.