Category: freedom of expression

Chambers v Director of Public Prosecutions [2012] EWHC 2157 (Admin); [2012] WLR (D) 234
“A message which did not create fear or apprehension in those to whom it was communicated, or who may reasonably have been expected to see it, was not of a ‘menacing character’ within the meaning section 127(1)(a) of the Communications Act 2003. That provision created an offence of basic intent and, accordingly, the mental element of the offence was satisfied if the accused were proved to have intended that the message should have been of menacing character or alternatively, to have been aware of or to have recognised the risk at the time of sending the message that it might have created fear or apprehension in any reasonable member of the public who had read or seen it. Moreover, a ‘tweet’ sent via the social networking site Twitter, was ‘a message’ sent by an electronic communications service for the purposes of section 127(1) of the 2003 Act regardless of whether the tweet was read as a ‘message’ or as content on the website.”

WLR Daily, 27th July 2012

Source: www.iclr.co.uk