Subjects:

Media and Entertainment Law, Media and Entertainment Law

Contents:

1. Introduction

Part 1 - Article 10 European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act

2. Strasbourg, media freedom and proportionality: Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights

3. The Human Rights Act in the context of media freedom

Part 2 - The administration of justice and media freedom

fairness of proceedings

the open justice principle

4. Introduction: free speech and fair trial values

5. Free speech and fair trials: reporting restrictions

6. Free speech and fair trials: prejudicing proceedings

7. Protection of journalistic sources

Part 3 - Media freedom, offence, morality and hate speech

8. Pornography: hate speech?

9. Blasphemy, racial hatred and religious hatred

10. Censorship and regulation of the visual media on the ground of avoiding offence: general issues of law and policy

11. Regulating broadcasting on grounds of avoiding offence

12. Regulation of films, videos and the internet

Part 4 - Media freedom and the protection of privacy

13. Privacy and freedom of expression: Strasbourg jurisprudence in UK courts

14. Protection for privacy against the press in the Human Rights Act era

15. Defences to the tort of misuse of private information and remedies

16. Restrictions protecting the private and family life of children

17. Regulation of the broadcast media and the protection of privacy

Part 5 - Copyright and media freedom

18. Copyright law, Article 10 and media freedom

Part 6 - Media freedom and political speech

19,. Official secrecy, access to information and the media

20. Freedom of political expression in broadcasting

21. Defamation and political speech

22. Conclusions

Media Freedom under the Human Rights Act provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of the impact of Article 10 ECHR, as received through the Human Rights Act 1998, on the substantive law governing freedom of expression in the media.

Fully up to date, the book provides extensive coverage of crucial recent developments in this field; these include:-

• the key cases of Ashworth and Punch in the area of contempt;
• the ground-breaking privacy decisions in Von Hannover v Germany and Campbell v MGN ;
• full consideration of theoretical approaches to explicit speech and blasphemy, including a detailed critique of Strasbourg case-law in the area;
• detailed discussion of the new offence of incitement to religious hatred;
• the new scheme for content regulation of broadcasting under the Communications Act 2003 in the light of Prolife Alliance ;
• a full survey of recent domestic and Strasbourg caselaw in the areas of copyright and political defamation,
• analysis of the early impact of the Freedom of Information Act.

The authors - both leading academics in the field - have drawn on significant comparative decisions to formulate a coherent and provocative critique of the relationship between media law and freedom of expression, and suggested principles which make a significant contribution to the legal discourse surrounding media freedom in the Human Rights Act era.

The result is a book which provides a scholarly and theoretically informed analysis of this very topical subject, of interest to those studying at all levels and practising in this area of law.

• Offers comprehensive coverage of major media law topics, including privacy, contempt, copyright, official secrecy and freedom of information, content regulation of broadcasters, and political defamation
• Takes a comparative approach to consider the impact of the Human Rights Act on these areas, written by leading experts on the Act
• Includes detailed discussion of recent key cases and legislative developments to early 2006