This week is the fifth birthday of the Inforrm blog – which began operation on 22 January 2010. Our first post – “Welcome to Inforrm” – attracted 2 visitors in January 2010 and the site had a total of 7 page views that month. That was the only post for that month. The posting rate and visitor numbers have increased dramatically since then. In the last five years we have had a total of nearly 3,000 posts and 2.6 million page views.
The media law issues in January 2015 are not the all same as those we were thinking about at the date of our launch. At the start of 2010 the burning issue was libel reform – which continued to dominate for the rest of the year. In the first half of 2011 there was the “Super-Injunction spring”. In 2011 to 2012 there was phone hacking followed by the Leveson Inquiry – which reported in November 2012. The discussion 2013 was dominated by the Leveson Report and the debate about its implementation.
In 2014 we had the coming into force of the Defamation Act 2013 – which is the result of the campaigning we covered when the blog was first set up – and the various phone hacking and Operation Elveden trials. It was also the year of Google Spain and data protection issues are likely to feature heavily in 2015.
In 2014 we sought to continue our coverage of general legal issues – case law from Britain, Europe and around the world and other issues such as social media and cyberbullying. All suggestions for topics from our readers are welcomed.
We would like to thank all our readers and contributors over the past 5 years. The top posts over this period have been from a number of outside authors – taking a range of different views on the issues. Our intention continues to be to serve as a “forum” for debating issues and we would encourage readers to offer contributions on any issue concerning media responsibility, media law and the other topics which we have been writing about. Contact us at inforrmeditorial@gmail.com
In addition to our Home page, Table of Media Law Cases, and “About Inforrm“, the top twenty posts of the past five years have been as follows:
- Harassment and injunctions: Cheryl Cole – Natalie Peck
- The cases of Vanessa Perroncel and John Terry – a curious legal affair – Dominic Crossley
- Case Law, Strasbourg: Von Hannover v Germany (No.2) – Unclear clarification and unappreciated margins – Kirsten Sjøvoll
- Social Media: How many people use Twitter and what do we think about it?
- Case Law: ETK v News Group Newspapers “Privacy Injunctions and Children” – Edward Craven
- Case Law: OPO v MLA, Shock and disbelief at the Court of Appeal – Dan Tench
- News: Tulisa “Sex Tape”, false privacy turns into true privacy
- La Regina Nuda and Italian Privacy Law – Athalie Matthews and Giacomo Parmigiani
- Case Law: Růžový Panter, OS v Czech Republic: Anti-Corruption NGO defamation case, no violation of Article 10
- The MP and the “Super-Injunction” – rumour, myth and distortion (again)
- Case Law: “Spiller v Joseph – the New Defence of Honest Comment” – Catherine Rhind
- Case Law: Iqbal v Dean Manson, harassment by letter – Edward Craven
- News: Hemming MP’s “super injunction victim” named as sex abuse fabricator
- Case Law: DFT v TFD – super injunctions, again – Mark Thomson
- The BBC, Lord McAlpine and Libel Law
- Anonymity, “Take That” and Reporting Privacy Injunctions
- Case Law: Thornton v Telegraph Media Group, an offer of amends defence fails – Hugh Tomlinson QC
- Defamation in Scotland – mostly quiet on the northern front?
- Wayne Rooney’s Private Life and the Public Interest
- Case Law, Strasbourg: Delfi AS v Estonia: Court Strikes Serious Blow to Free Speech Online – Gabrielle Guillemin
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