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Christopher Jefferies - Apology

The papers apologise 







The apology to Mr Jefferies during The Leveson Inquiry

Current Issues in media regulation - OCR conference notes

PCC
As The Leveson Inquiry will not conclude until September you can speculate on the outcome.

• Will the replacement for the PCC have statutory powers?
• How will it operate in relation to our free press?
• Will it have ethical standards?

When originally looking into the phone hacking claims, the head of the PCC said there was not enough evidence to proceed with the investigation. This supports the claim that the PCC is 'toothless'

Lord Hunt (at The Leveson Inquiry) said the replacement to the PCC needed to be 'something with teeth'

The organisation of The Leveson Inquiry:

• Celebrities and the general public
• Police (Current interviews looking at the relationship between the press and the police)
• Politicians (Still to come, the relationship between the government and the press, with implications of how the police are also involved)

By starting with celebrities this kept The Leveson Inquiry in the press for an extended period of time. The normal length of a major story in the press is 12 days. With the information being reported from each session the following day The Leveson Inquiry was kept in the news. Now that the inquiry has move onto the police less information is being reported. However when the politicians take to the stands the media interest could well raise. 

A number of politicians have a very close relationship with Rupert Murdoch. In the exam you could speculate about what information will be revealed and more importantly the implication for the present and previous government.

Journalists and the law
Journalists are allowed to keep their sources confidential (If they had to declare all their sources then no one would pass their stories to the press)

There are very strict rules regarding reporting during a court case. Before any case starts the press can speculate and report. Christopher Jefferies was hounded by the press as he had a link to Joanna Yates because he was her landlord. Due to his appearance the press made him the number one suspect.

Once the court case starts journalists need to be very careful how they report a story, as any bias could effect the jury's decision. The charge of contempt of court is very serious.

Contempt of Court example


Currently the press is allowed into every court case. The press are even allowed into youth courts, although the public are not. This maintains the theory that the courts should not be private.

David Cameron has said "gaps" in national security must be plugged as he defended plans for more secret court hearings and more internet monitoring. 


Would this be a positive or negative development?

Cameron and secret courts

Clegg's view of the secret courts


The use of social media and how this can now influence future cases.

Joey Barton

Is Dominic Grieve right? Or does he have a lack of understanding about the power of social media?

Joey Barton's tweet:

"This John Terry saga, has turned into one of the most hideously managed spectacles I have ever known. WTF is going on...... We all know what was said. Its there on TV for all to see. Do I think hes a racist? No.
I think hes said something really stupid in the heat of battle/argument. This should of been dealt with instantly (Like Suarez or more games) and put to bed.
The longer it goes on, the worse it is for the game. Racism needs to be stamped out. We all agree on that. This is now affecting England as well as those involved.
I dont a f*cking man and took his punishment for what he said. This is now helping nobody. The one I feel for is Anton, hes done nowt wrong and has.
Once the issue went out of the FA's control, it was always going to get messy. They should have dealt with it instantly. Now its a farce..
Should of thrown his hands up and admitted his grave error. Excepted his deserved disciplinary action and let everyone move on.
Whose the winner in all of this? I cant think of anyone....can you? What a debacle its turned into. Sad state of affairs. Heads should roll.
I am fuming for my teammate Stan. For 6 months, he has to carry on dealing with this situation when hes done nothing wrong"
"I'll probably get a letter now from "the powers that be." If you're reading this don't bother........."

Joey Barton has 1,211,500 followers, look at this in comparison to newspapers read everyday.

Daily Newspaper consumption:

Daily Mirror : 1,102,810 

Daily Record : 291,825 

Daily Star : 617,082 

The Sun : 2,582,301 

Daily Express : 577,543 

Daily Mail : 1,945,496 

The Daily Telegraph : 578,774 

Financial Times : 316,493 

The Herald : 46,122 

The Guardian : 215,988 

The Independent : 105,160 

The Scotsman : 37,731 

The Times : 397,549 

Racing Post : 45,278 

The Daily Mirror / Daily Record : 1,394,635

Liam Stacey

He pleaded guilty to incitement to racial hatred and was freed on bail on condition he stays off Twitter and other social networking sites.

Racist Tweet (At the bottom of the article there is also a short piece about Ryan Giggs and super injunctions)     More

Although the internet has no rules and regulations as such, the tweets that appeared on Twitter were reported to the police leading to Liam Stacey being arrested. How does this fit into the current media regulation debate? Does there need to be specific rules put in place for the internet? Or is this a good example of where there are already laws that work?

The Reynolds Defence

Example: Sargent Gary Flood and the Reynolds Defence   Outcome of the case was that 'The Times was right to publish the story as it was in the public interest.

Recent BBFC cases:

The Hunger Games used a blurring effect to cover some scenes that would otherwise have raised the classification for the film. The film was given a 12a cinema rating.

Bully Rating

Work for Wednesday

OK, to begin with you need to plan and answer the following question. Try to keep to the 1 hour exam time.

Select one of the questions:

Task 1

How effectively can contemporary media be regulated?


How far do changes to the regulation of media reflect broader social changes? 


Plan and write this essay in 1 hour and then email your essay to me by the end of Wednesday.

Cautionary Note: If I don't get your essay your will be re-writing your essay on the first Wednesday back in the naughty corner, as in staying on Wednesday.

Task 2

Write 1-3 questions that could come up on the exam paper. Remember to be as broad as possible with the question. We can then use the questions as preparation for the exam.,

Email me your exam style questions by Friday 30th. I will then collate/modify your questions for revision net term.

Cautionary Note: If I do not have at least one question from you by Friday you will be in the naughty corner and staying on Wednesday.

Super Injunctions

Celebrities attempted to stop any stories reaching the public with the use of super injunctions. What quickly became apparent was that the age old practice of gagging the press was now futile in a world where digital communications and social networks were allowing both the foolish and the brave amongst the general public to ignore any legal restrictions and say whatever they wanted. 

Love cheat Giggs' damages claim thrown out of court

Claim over ... Ryan Giggs had claimed damages and invasion of privacy

By GARY O'SHEA

Last Updated: 03rd March 2012

THE Sun won a battle for press freedom yesterday as a privacy case brought by Ryan Giggs over his affair with Imogen Thomas was thrown out of court.

The ruling — hailed by legal experts as a "spectacular victory for The Sun" — brought to an end our 11-month legal battle with the Man United love rat.

Mr Justice Tugendhat said at the High Court in London: "It cannot be said that the claim for damages could give rise to any significant award."

He added there was "no purpose" in allowing the case to continue.

We reported last April that ex-Miss Wales and Big Brother beauty Imogen, 28, was having a fling with a married Premier League star.

Fling ... Imogen Thomas

But we were gagged by a court order from identifying him. Welsh winger Giggs, 38, blew a fortune trying to kill off the story — but it backfired spectacularly.

The millionaire star, known in court only as CTB until last month, was soon named and shamed by millions of people on Twitter.

Then last May, Lib Dem MP John Hemming used parliamentary privilege to name Giggs in the Commons.

The player's privacy case claimed The Sun "misused" private information — and demanded damages for distress over RE-PUBLICATION of information in other newspapers and on the internet.

Our barrister Richard Spearman QC said the article did not identify Giggs.

We had behaved "properly" and were not responsible for him being identified elsewhere.

The judge said the case was "notorious".

He went on: "There can be few people in England and Wales who have not heard of this. The initials CTB have been chanted at football matches when Mr Giggs has been playing."

Media lawyer Mark Stephens "This was a spectacular victory for honest, decent and appropriate reporting.

"The Sun, through diligent reporting and excellent reporting, has put a stake through the heart of the super-injunction. Ryan Giggs has done a public service by making clear superinjunctions are not the way forward."

Christopher Jefferies

I have searched through the PCC records and cannot find any complaints from Christopher Jefferies. As this was such a high profile case the usual PCC decision of an apology was probably not deemed sufficient.

What does this say about the power of the PCC?

He has sued eight newspapers for libel - Can you remember what libel is? Explain it in your own words, in relation to Christopher Jefferies.

Jefferies describes vilification

Chris Jefferies said he was made out to be a 'dark, macabre, sinister villain' following Joanna Yeates' death 

Christopher Jefferies, the man wrongly arrested by police in the hunt for the murderer of Joanna Yeates, has given a graphic account of how he was vilified by the press.

The retired teacher, who was Miss Yeates's landlord, was libelled by eight newspapers following his arrest on suspicion of her murder.

Police later exonerated Mr Jefferies and he then successfully sued eight newspapers for libel. Two national newspapers, The Sun and The Mirror, were prosecuted for contempt of court for their reporting of the episode.

The former Clifton College teacher described how some of the newspapers painted him as a "dark, macabre, sinister villain" having mistakenly believed that because he had been arrested on suspicion of murder he must be the killer.

Mr Jefferies said: "The press seemed determined to believe both that the person who had been arrested was the genuine murderer and to portray me in as dark and lurid a light as possible.

"Lo and behold you don't just have a sexual predator but you have a bisexual predator and all sorts of fantastic rumours were latched on to that I would hold pupils' hands while reading poetry, obviously with sinister sexual motives.

"To complete the character assassination it was alleged that I was fascinated by death because I happened to have shown on a couple of occasions a particularly important documentary about the liberation of Auschwitz.

"Here you have me, this dark, macabre, sinister villain. And that certainly wasn't the whole of it."

Mr Jefferies was speaking at the Benn Debate, organised by the Bristol branch of the National Union of Journalists in conjunction with the Bristol Festival of Ideas and two charities, MediaAct and MediaWise. Donnacha DeLong, president of the National Union of Journalists, chaired the event.

Mr Jefferies, who has twice appeared before the Leveson Inquiry into press standards, is currently taking legal action against Avon and Somerset Police for wrongful arrest.

The Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom

Home page for the CPBF

The PCC is closing down. Will anyone notice?

0 comments 

Tim Gopsill

DATELINE: 9/3/12 

The Press Complaints Commission has announced it is to close. It had to do so with something of a fanfare because no-one would otherwise have noticed and in any case nothing has changed. The organisation will carry on dispensing its feeble gestures at "self-regulation" until something else comes along.

In other words it is just another unconvincing exercise in rebranding. Every time over the last 20 years that some crisis has exposed the PCC's failings it has announced some footling reforms – tinkering with its Code of Practice, conducting a perfunctory investigation or a bogus internal review, appointing a fresh Tory peer as its chair ....

The announcement demonstrates that it has not overcome its biggest problem, which is that it believes its own lies. 

The PCC was constructed on a lie – that it was the only alternative to the evil of state control of the press. For years the press and politicians colluded in the fiction that a draconian privacy law was hanging over their heads, while in truth no government would ever have summoned the courage to put any kind of restrictions on the Big Media owners.

For all the while political leaders of all parties were kowtowing to them in the most embarrassing way – not just to Murdoch but to all of them.

The PCC's favourite lie has been that that under its firm tutelage the national press was "cleaning up its act" and the excesses of intrusion, harassment and misrepresentation were all in the past. Whether anyone believed it or not was not the point: what mattered was the message. From its inception the PCC was a public relations excise, and that they got away with it for 21 years might be regarded as something of an achievement.

In truth, the PCC made press standards worse. Its function was to construct a barrier between editors and the readers, which served to protect them from public ire. This allowed editors to behave less responsibly without worrying about the consequences.

Complainers did not have to be appeased or reasoned with. The PCC would look after that and twist their arms to take whatever measly recompense they recommended as the best they could hope to get.

Now the editors, owners and their PRs in the PCC are engaged in a rearguard damage limitation exercise to create a new brand that retains these essential characteristics of the old – just as they did in 1991.

Then they wound up the old Press Council (PC) under the threat of a statutory intervention from the Calcutt inquiry and produced the PCC as if from a hat. The politicians were satisfied – despite the fact that the PC was actually more effective than the successor.

They have become so good at this game that they will certainly come up with something sufficiently tough-looking to convince the gullible. 

The question then will be whether politicians and public fall for it. It is hoped that the post-News of the World climate will be too frosty for a new fake to flourish, but that can't be certain.

To a large extent it depends on what Lord Justice Leveson recommends. It also depends on campaigners like the CPBF to keep up the pressure and stiffen the public resolve for media justice.



(Source The Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom)

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