Sauce for the goose? reporting restrictions in the family courts

In the wake of the hoohah regarding sailors' sale of stories and the relaxation and reimposition of MoD restrictions (reflected here 1,2,3,4), a nice juxtaposition has been highlighted in the Guardian and picked up by Wordblog and Greenslade. It concerns the inability of a couple falsely accused by council services of injuring their baby son to tell their full story due to reporting restrictions.

The rights and wrongs of open justice in the family courts has been a focus of long-running and ongoing debate. Most recently, Lord Falconer indicated that the arguments for greater openness, such as those put forward by the Newspaper Society:

“the media should be allowed to attend ALL family courts as of right…The principle of a general presumption of openness must be established if public confidence and accountability is to be achieved. The role of the media as representative of the public particularly in relation to attendance at court proceedings is well established and understood”

had to be set against the views of those representing children's interests to the effect that:

“(there are) concerns about the assumption that the media will work on behalf, and for the benefit, of the public alone. Allowing the media access to family courts proceedings would give the public greater awareness of the complexities involved in making difficult decisions about a child’s care and welfare. However, the media also inevitably has a function to find news that will increase readership and sell newspapers and magazines. Any plans for opening up the courts must address this conflict of interest to ensure that the courts are open to scrutiny in a manner which keeps the child’s welfare and protection paramount.” (National Children's Bureau).

On publishing a full set of responses to its recent consultation on open justice in the family courts, the Government promised to bring forward further proposals in due course.

Note: US brings media/IP case against China to WTO

The US has brought two cases against China to the WTO. It alleges, first, that China has failed properly to enforce copyright and trademark protections with the result that piracy of US media products is rife, and secondly, that China has erected further barriers to market access for such products (for more, see MediaGuardian).

BBC Trust receives complaint re BBC mobile services

BroadcastNow (subscription service) is reporting that the Chief Executive of ITN has complained to the BBC Trust about the plans of the BBC to launch a free trial of its mobile television services.

The BBC plans to allow subscribers to Orange, Vodafone and 3's TV packages to watch BBC One, BBC News 24 and BBC Three (with the exception of some sport and acquired programmes) streamed on their mobiles. They will also be able to listen to up to eight BBC radio stations. The BBC hopes to assess the utility of the platform, and also how users respond to the provision of linear services in this mode. It is not clear whether the BBC sees the post-trial service as an aspect of its public service remit, or whether the plan is to launch a full commercial service. Presumably, its the former. It is already possible to access BBC internet services by mobile.

ITN operates its own service to mobile phones, ITV On, which it plans to expand. Indeed, last month it announced the launch of a new music division. Its concern is that the free trial would undermine commercial services, and distort trials of services funded by advertising.

Meanwhile, the Trust has indicated that future link-ups between the BBC and other media organisations, such as that with YouTube announced in March, will probably be made subject to a public value test.

Update on Virgin vs Sky

The self-imposed deadline by which Virgin threatened to initiate legal proceedings against BSkyB if the latter did not return its general channels to the cable platform has come and gone. It seems that Sky has forestalled the move by Virgin by means of an eleventh hour letter (1,2). Its not clear what BSkyB has offered, but it is said to have robustly rejected the foundations of Virgin's putative legal action. We'll have to wait on Virgin's response.

Perhaps its entirely unrelated to this ongoing spat, but I did note that The Times was the only broadsheet to be reporting Branson's loss of an age discrimination case in Australia in which older air hostesses alleged that the Virgin Blue airline were only interesting in young and good-looking applicants for posts...

Icstis launches new code

Icstis, the premium rate calls regulator, has announced the introduction of a new set of rules for tv quiz call programmes in the form of a new Statement of Expectations (1,2,3). The new rules purport to be a response to concerns raised in a Parliamentary report in January (see also last week's joint Ofcom/Icstis reply), but are also clearly motivated by the recent splurge of investigations.

The Statement requires transparency on callers' chances of getting on air (by way of an onscreen totaliser of the number of recent calls), the provision of pricing information (directly by the presenter or by means of a voice-over), and warnings to be given to individual callers who are spending substantial amounts. Icstis also hope to develop an enhanced prior permission regime - or kitemark - for all premium rate services that are broadcast.

Ofcom's own investigation into the recent problems is ongoing.

PCC off the hook? Middleton pulls complaint

Kate Middleton has withdrawn her complaint to the PCC in which she alleged harassment at the hands of the Daily Mirror (1,2). This followed the publication of a full apology by Richard Wallace (the newspaper's editor). There has been an interesting debate on Greenslade, first lamenting the fact that the PCC won't now be asked to take a position on the acceptability of journalists and paparazzi continually trailing public figures, and more generally on the degree of protection that celebrities and other public figures warrant / deserve / need.

I've begun to wonder, though, what might be the ramifications of a tighter regulatory regime. On one vision, we might see the development of what many might perceive to be a more 'grown-up' public culture in which celebrity tittle-tattle ultimately drew less of an audience and private matters were left in the private domain unless called up in support of some public interest story. Or at least, the only tittle-tattle in the papers would be that sanctioned by the celebrities themselves.

More likely - and this is alluded to by Greenslade (sort of) when he mentions 'the continuing appetite for such pictures in foreign papers and magazines' - we might get the above in mainstream media, but then also see a shifting of the site of publication of non-consensual pap-shots. That is, we may have continuing intrusions on privacy, but with the publication driven 'underground' to (offshore) online start-ups (think popbitch / popdirt, or the proliferating online gossip sites re teachers / fellow students and so on). Plus ca change?

Incidentally, I'll be attending a conference at the end of the month hosted by the Franco-British Lawyers Society in Belfast on the subject of the right to privacy in the UK and France. I'm expecting that my cosy illusion of there being a more 'refined' public culture in France will be shattered then, but more on that anon...

Note: House of Lords refuses to hear McKevitt v Ash

The House of Lords has refused to hear an appeal from the ruling of the Court of Appeal on McKevitt v Ash. For comment, see Greenslade and the MediaGuardian.