The Wardman Wire

Free Speech Campaign

Who is Charon QC?

This article is a list of around 15 podcasts Charon QC has done which cover questions around Civil Liberties. I have reposted the article with permission. Interviewees include the following:

1. With Steve Hynes the director of the Legal Action Group.
2. With James Welch, Head of Legal for Liberty
3. Short podcast with blogger, Oedipus Lex: A report from the Convention on Modern Liberty
4. The Jack Straw veto on FOI disclosure of Cabinet Minutes relating to the decision to go to war with Iraq. With Carl Gardner.
5. With Michael Burdett, a solicitor and consultant with HCL Hanne & Co in London
6. With Michael Burdett, about the Legal Services Commission.
7. With Roger Smith, Director of Justice
8. With Ian Parker-Joseph, Leader of The UK Libertarian Party
9. With Carl Gardner on the Lords judgment in Qatada
10. Charon reports on the Geert Wilders affair
11. Judge John L Kane on the war on drugs
12. With Carl Gardner on The arrest of Damien Green MP
13. With Carl Gardner on 42 days detention
14. Gerald Bermingham, Barrister on The Menezes shooting verdict
15. R v Davis - Witness Anonymity with Andrew Keogh, Barrister
16. The right of prisoners to vote with Carl Gardner
17. With John Hirst - author of Jailhouse Lawyer’s blog

As far as I can tell, legal bloggers seem to be the only ones who are still assuming - as a matter of course - that cigars and alcohol are part of the essentials of life, rather than dirty secrets to be kept under the bed with the Spectator and the New Statesman. Given that one is going to smoke and drink, it seems far more sensible to spend your time smoking and drinking, rather than (or as well as) fighting nanny - whose time will be up one day anyway.

Enjoy.

From Out-Law.com, on a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)

Publishers’ indefinite liability for defamatory material in their online archives is not a restriction on their rights to free speech, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled. The decision backs a 160-year-old rule of English law.

The Times newspaper had argued that the burden of indefinite liability was so onerous that it would have a ‘chilling effect’ on archive publishers, but the ECHR has reaffirmed that a new defamation action can be taken every time online defamatory material is accessed.

The European Convention on Human Rights says in article 10:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers”.

This means that a “republication” occurs every time a web page is accessed, and is based on a finding in an 1830 involving the Duke of Brunswick where it was ruled that a “publication” by a magazine had occurred 17 years later when the Duke’s agent obtained a copy from an archive, rather than when the issue of the magazine was first sold.

Cory Doctorow in Milan for “Meet the Media Guru” talks about the innovation Obama has brought in politics 2.0, copyright and creative commons, privacy on Facebook and State control.

Really rather excellent, and drawing on British examples.

He makes some interesting comparisons between “online creatives not making much money” along the lines of “’twas ever thus - sorry”, but makes the point that now self-expressions is easier than ever before.

One good point: we are all concerned about privacy on Facebook, but they seem to be distinctly better at privacy than the State - so what credibility is there for even bigger database be built nationally.

The interview is 23 minutes, and there’s something in there for everyone.

Carter-Ruck are a high profile firm of “Anti-Defamation” and “Libel” lawyers, who have an interesting “reputation”.

If you search for “Carter-Ruck” on Youtube (or Google video) it comes up with this as the first entry.

I love the internet.

Also some kind, community-spirited person has pointed http://tinyurl.com/carter-ruck (and http://tinyurl.com/carter-fuck) to the same place.

I didn’t realise what I was taking on when I volunteered for the Carnival of Modern Liberty. The posts have been coming in all week like bills from British Gas, and the doormat is completely buried.

So, here we go with the Wardman Wire version, in a slightly less animated style than Jennie last week.

Sometimes the Yanks are just sensible. Via Press Gazette:

A bill aimed at protecting American journalists, writers and publishers from “libel tourism” cases brought against them in foreign courts has been introduced into the United States Senate.

The Free Speech Protection Act, which is being sponsored by Senators Arlen Specter, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, was introduced last night.

The bill is aimed at protecting journalists and publishers from libel suits in foreign courts which do not have the same protections for free speech as the US constitution.

The measure would give federal courts the power to bar the enforcement of foreign libel judgments if the material at issue would not constitute libel under US law.

It is also aimed at actively deterring “libel tourism” cases brought in foreign courts by permitting American defendants to counter-sue under certain circumstances.

The act would create a federal cause of action and jurisdiction so that federal courts would be able to decide whether there was defamation under US law when an American journalist, academic, writer or speaker was sued in a foreign court for speech or publication in the US.

Companion legislation is expected to be introduced into the House of Representatives.

I hope that that will be one in the eye for Carter-Ruck and Schillings, since it will deter some potential clients.