“Controversial ‘super-injunctions’ highlighted by the Guardian do prevent the media’s reporting of proceedings in parliament, the Commons Speaker’s legal team have advised in a move MPs will regard as a real threat to free speech.”
The Guardian, 6th December 2009
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Speech by Mr Justice Eady (PDF)
University of Hertfordshire, 10th November 2009
Source: www.judiciary.gov.uk
“The government is bidding to overturn a defeat in the House of Lords over new laws criminalising ‘homophobic hatred’.”
BBC News, 12th November 2009
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“‘We do not have free speech in Britain, we have expensive speech … Defending a libel action in Britain is vastly more expensive than in any other European country – lawyers will rack up a million pounds in fees for a short trial and our cash-strapped media is increasingly choosing to settle rather than to fight for its freedom – which, after all, is its reader’s freedom to receive information.'”
The Guardian, 10th November 2009
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Intimidating and out-of-date laws are silencing free speech and scientific inquiry, a report claims, amid increasing controversy over England’s status as ‘the libel capital of the world’.”
The Guardian, 10th November 2009
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“English libel law imposes disproportionate restrictions on free speech, according to an independent report that recommends 10 changes to the laws. The Ministry of Justice said today that it will launch a consultation on defamation and the internet.”
OUT-LAW.com, 10th November 2009
Source: www.out-law.com
“English libel law is as real a threat to free inquiry as the repressive zeal of anti-terrorism policy.”
The Guardian, 10th November 2009
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The Media Legal Defence Initiative, launched last week, aims to help journalists around the world by providing lawyers willing to fight for media freedoms.”
The Guardian, 9th November 2009
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Freedom of speech campaigners are claiming victory as the House of Lords is expected to back changes removing ‘anachronistic’ laws which have criminalised libel for more than 700 years.”
The Guardian, 25th October 2009
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The government is concerned that double gagging orders – ‘super-injunctions’ – are being used too readily by libel law firms, and will involve the judiciary in a consultation hoping to bring down their use.”
The Guardian, 21st October 2009
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Britain’s most senior judge has warned his fellow judges that he cannot envisage any circumstances in which it would be “constitutionally possible or proper” for a court to make an order that gagged debate in parliament. His warning follows the Guardian’s free speech victory last week when lawyers for the oil trading company Trafigura gave up their attempt to gag parliament over its dumping of toxic waste in Ivory Coast.”
The Guardian, 20th October 2009
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Mr Justice Eady’s rulings amplify the democratic world’s most illiberal laws – enabled by 12 years of utterly feeble leadership.”
The Guardian, 19th October 2009
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“It may not have the ring of a historic legal battle. But the case of A v B, which opened at the new supreme court today, has a significance that goes way beyond the banal soubriquets of the two sides.”
The Guardian, 20th October 2009
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“A science writer who is being sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association is to fight on after a preliminary judgment against him was overturned on appeal today.”
The Guardian, 14th October 2009
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Gordon Brown today stepped into the row over the use of super-injunctions that ban reporting of a story and also the existence of the ban, telling MPs the legal tactic was ‘an unfortunate area of the law’.”
The Guardian, 15th October 2009
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The law firm at the centre of the an unprecedented attempt by a British oil trading firm to prevent the Guardian reporting parliamentary proceedings is to be reported to the Law Society, it emerged today.”
The Guardian, 14th October 2009
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Today I am talking to Carl Gardner, ex government lawyer, a barrister and author of The Head of Legal blog. We look at whether the Bill of Rights has, in fact, been infringed by the gag, the use of injunctions generally and specifically in this instance, the use of parliamentary privilege and whether the judges are going too far in granting injunctions which can, effectively, be destroyed in their effect by many thousands of angry people on twitter and in the blogosphere.”
Charon QC, 13th October 2009
Source: www.charonqc.wordpress.com
“Charon QC” is the blogging pseudonym of Mike Semple Piggot, editor of insitelaw newswire.
“Far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders has won an appeal against a Home Office decision barring his entry to the UK.”
BBC News, 13th October 2009
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“The editor of a newspaper which was banned from reporting on the tabling of a question in Parliament has thanked the users of micro-blogging service Twitter for their role in what he called a ‘victory for free speech’.”
OUT-LAW.com, 13th October 2009
Source: www.out-law.com
“The existence of a previously secret injunction against the media by oil traders Trafigura can now be revealed.”
The Guardian, 13th October 2009
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
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