House of Commons - Press standards, privacy and libel - Culture, Media and Sport Committee

House of Commons portcullis

House of Commons

Session 2009-10
Publications on the internet
Culture, Media and Sport Committee Publications

Culture, Media and Sport Committee - Second Report
Press standards, privacy and libel

Here you can browse the report together with the Proceedings of the Committee. The published report was ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 9 February 2010.

Contents

Terms of Reference

Summary
1 Introduction
2 Privacy and breach of confidence

Introduction
The Human Rights Act
Section 12 of the Act
Section 12 in practice
Max Mosley and the News of the World
Is it time to legislate on privacy?
Mr Justice Eady and privacy law
Compulsory pre-notification
Super-injunctions
Breach of confidence

3 Libel and Press Freedom

The development of our libel laws
Bringing and defending a libel action in the UK
Early hearings on meaning
Defending libel actions - justification and the burden of proof
Fair comment
Privilege
The 'responsible journalism' defence
Corporations and defamation
Jurisdiction
The international context
The internet and the 'repeat publication' rule
Criminal libel

4 Costs

Introduction
Attempts to control costs
Other inquiries
Costs Capping
Offer of Amends
Hourly rates
Conditional Fee Agreements

5 Press standards

Introduction
Financial pressures
Newspaper headlines
The case of the McCanns
The events
What went wrong?
The role of the PCC
Lessons learned?
Suicide reporting in the media
The case of Bridgend
Phone-hacking and blagging
Fresh allegations
The Miskiw contract
The 'for Neville' email
The door-knock
Who knew about the phone-hacking?
The Goodman and Mulcaire settlements
The Taylor settlement
The actions of the police
Operation Motorman
Conclusions regarding phone-hacking and blagging
6 Self-regulation of the Press
The Press Complaints Commission
The PCC and fines
The independence of the PCC
A more proactive approach?
The authority of the PCC
The PCC's statistics
'Due prominence'
The future of the PCC

Conclusions and recommendations
Annex Glossary of terms
Appendix Press Complaints Commission Code of Practice
Formal Minutes
Witnesses
List of written evidence
List of unprinted written evidence
List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament

Oral and Written Evidence
Tuesday 24 February 2009

Tuesday 10 March 2009

Thursday 19 March 2009

Tuesday 24 March 2009

Tuesday 21 April 2009

Thursday 23 April 2009

Tuesday 28 April 2009

Tuesday 5 May 2009

Tuesday 19 May 2009

Tuesday 2 June 2009

Tuesday 14 July 2009

Tuesday 21 July 2009

Wednesday 2 September 2009

Tuesday 15 September 2009

Written Evidence

© Parliamentary copyright 2010
Prepared 24 February 2010