UPDATE: Second Re-Tweeter Pays Up in Lord McAlpine's U.K. Libel Case

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

British comic Alan Davies is the latest social mediaite to learn the cost of the dark side of retweeting; in this case, 15,000 pounds ($23,976), according to accounts in The Guardian and the iMediaEthics.org media watchdog Web site.

Davies's resolution with Lord McAlpine follows the settlement last month with retweeter Sally Bercow, the spouse of the U.K. House of Commons Speaker. As reported here (see "TUOL" post 11/26/12), the retired British pol Alistair McAlpine, 71, one-time Conservative Party treasurer and confidant of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, settled a libel suit for roughly a combined $500,000 with the BBC and ITV last November.

Steve Messham, who alleged he was molested as a child, purportedly identified his alleged abuser in a photo whom police incorrectly said was McAlpine. Messham later apologized for the misidentification, but the BBC Newsnight program reported an unnamed North Wales politician was accused of pedophilia and the Twittersphere soon was active with posts suggesting that McAlpine was the abuser.

Davies, whom The Guardian reported has more than 400,000 Twitter followers, last year queried who the "Tory paedophile" was and retweeted a response identifying McAlpine. He was sued for libel by McAlpine despite promptly apologizing on Twitter for his posts. Bercow's 56,000 Tweeter followers allegedly received a post from her asking: "Why is Lord McAlpine trending? *innocent face*." McAlpine reportedly donated the settlement from Davies to the Royal Chelsea Hospital, according to The Guardian article.

The U.K. does not have the protection that likely would be accorded retweeters in the U.S. by Section 230(c)(1) of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which states: "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information contact provider."

From Lloyds to Droids

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After 279 years, Lloyd's List, which covers the global shipping industry and boasts of being the world's oldest continuously published newspaper, will become digital-only by year's end, according to owner Informa.

Lloyd's List debuted in 1734 as a notice pinned on the wall of a London coffee shop, according to an article in today's The Guardian. The move was dictated by Lloyd's List's smartphone and tablet-carrying readers. In a June survey conducted by the publication, 97 percent preferred digital access to Lloyd's shipping industry news, which effectively sank the print edition.

BBC Cost-Cutting Initiative Shutters 75 News Posts

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Seventy-five news posts will be shut down in a cost-savings move by the British Broadcasting Corp as part of its euphemistically named Delivering Quality First initiative, whose goal is to realize savings of 700 million pound ($1,120,879,665), The Guardian reported.

The DQF proposal was unveiled in 2011 (See "TUOL" posts 1/24/11, & 10/7/11) and has caused the BBC (Brits Be Cuttin') to butt heads with the National Union of Journalists, in that the plan calls for shrinking BBC News' workforce by 600 by the 2016-17 financial year, according to The Guardian article.  Over the next year, 17 newsgathering slots are expected to be eliminated, including the Moscow Bureau Editor.

BBC & Current Affairs employ more than 8,000, according to the article.

Free Speech Advocates on Edge Over Punitive Grenada Media Law

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Parliament of Grenada, the Caribbean nation and largest island of the Grenadines, has passed a punitive social media measure that has drawn fire from free press proponents, The Guardian reported this week.

The new law carries one-year jail terms for violators who make "offensive" comments, or send tweets or emails on social media platforms and media Web sites, according to the Guardian article. Knowingly posting false information to cause "annoyance...insult...and ill will" also is prohibited by the new law.

A spokesperson for the International Press Institute voiced concern over the law's criminalizing matters that previously have been handled through civil remedies, and was fearful of the new law's impact on investigative journalism and freedom of speech.

'E' as in Esquire

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In an attempt to appeal to digital readers born after the heyday of "men's magazines," and to stanch declining circulation of its print edition, Esquire on September 5 will unveil Esquire Weekly, a tablet version available from Apple iTunes for $1.54, The Guardian reported today.

An Android tablet version of the lifestyle periodical is expected to be rolled out in the near future, according to The Guardian article. Esquire Weekly will offer recommendations to readers in eight categories, who in turn, will be afforded e-commerce options, such as making an online reservation at a recommended restaurant or buying theater tickets to a show praised by the digital magazine.

The paper version of Esquire hasn't fared well recently, according to The Guardian piece, sustaining a 14.3 percent drop-off in circulation to 52,801 copies for the first half of 2013, compared to the same six-month period a year ago.

The Sun: Erin Won't Go Bragh-less Anymore

(Photo credit: betsythedevine)

(Photo credit: The Library of Congress)

On the 39th anniversary of President Richard M. Nixon announcing he would resign the presidency, The Unruly of Law, as a serious media law and journalism blog, today should post about profound changes in the communications industry and serious challenges facing our deeply entrenched First Amendment principles.

But they don't call 'em the "Dog Days of summer" for nothing, so instead, "TUOL" reports that the Ireland edition of  Rupert Murdoch's tabloid The Sun this week decided to discontinue running photos of topless women on page 3 that will continue to appear in the Great Britain edition because of what Irish edition Editor Paul Clarkson labeled "cultural differences."

As reported by The Guardian, Clarkson explained that Page 3 is a "popular pillar of the Sun in the UK and part of a package (ed. note: some package!) of great journalism, which engages, entertains and informs in equal measure." The Irish Sun, Clarkson went on to say, strives "to cater for our own readers' needs and reflect the cultural differences in Ireland."

Those readers' needs must be behind the reason the Irish Sun on Monday published a nude photo of Hollywood siren Marilyn Monroe that did not display her nipples (Bust Stop?). According to The Guardian article, the Irish Sun, which sells more than 63,000 copies daily--plunging like a neckline from 72,000 a year ago--has thus far drawn one angry complaint over its decision to engage in a cover-up, so to speak, and "TUOL" hopes the protestor had the good sense not to leave his name.

One only hopes that all these years that the Irish Sun displayed Page 3's bare-breasted women didn't contribute to The Troubles. One also hopes that the self-censorship won't prevent The Irish Sun from publishing on this momentous day a photo of President Nixon's bust.

Beyonce's Dad Sues The Sun for Defamation

In Mathew Knowles & Music World Entertainment v. The Sun (Case No. 4:2013-cv-01845), filed last week in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the father and former business manager of 31-year-old superstar Beyonce sued a U.K. tabloid for defamation and breach of contract.

According to an article in The Guardian, Knowles, 62, alleges The Sun, which is published by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.-owned NI Group Ltd., doctored a March 2013, interview he gave to Sun reporter Georgina Dickinson so as to appear as if his singer/actress daughter had "cut him out of her life." Additionally, the lawsuit contends that The Sun reneged on a contractual commitment to pay Knowles, who oversaw his daughter's career until 2011, for the exclusive sit-down interview.

The Complaint alleges that Dickinson's original text submitted to editors was radically rewritten to portray a father/daughter rift that doesn't exist. Knowles acknowledges the professional break-up with Beyonce, who is married to rapper Jay-Z, but claims a strong personal bond remains between them that was allegedly misrepresented in The Sun article that claimed he had yet to meet his granddaughter, Blue Ivy, who was 14 months old when the interview occurred.

The suit, to which The Sun  has yet to respond, seeks actual and punitive damages.

Cower of London: Times Slashes 20 Editorial Positions

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Shrinking circulation and vanishing ad revenues apparently are a problem across the pond, too, as the News Corp.-owned Times of London announced 20 editorial staffers are being pink-slipped, according to a story in The Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk).

Citing the scheduled end-of-the-month break-up by News Corp. of its newspaper, book publishing, television and film entities into two separate companies, acting Times Editor John Witherow warned that News International, publisher of the Times and Sunday Times, no longer can rely on receiving subsidies from better-performing media outlets, such as the tabloid Sun with its daily page 3 pinup of topless young women, according to The Guardian article. 

The layoffs will reduce the Times editorial staff by just under 10 percent. Witherow dismissed talk of any merger of the editorial staffs of the Times and Sunday Times. Times' newspapers sustained total losses of 28.7 million pounds ($44,760,993) for the fiscal year ending July 1, 2012, compared to a year earlier, when red ink added up to 11.8 million pounds ($18,408,120).

Roughly a hundred editorial positions were eliminated in 2011 by the Times and Sunday Times combined.

Guardian in Need of an Angel

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The newspaper industry's struggles have reached across the pond, as average daily sales last month of The Guardian fell below 200,000 for the first time, parent company Guardian News & Media reported.

Last week's Audit Bureau of Circulations report showed a 5.31 percent drop in month on month sales of The Guardian. The daily upped its daily cover price in January to 1.40 pound ($2.09). Since February 2012, The Guardian's daily circulation has plunged 10.37 percent.

It's unlikely that the price of fish & chips in London will be affected by the declining value of its wrapping.

Buffetting the Newspaper Industry

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Maybe Warren Buffett was given a DVD of Citizen Kane for Christmas. Whatever the reason, the billionaire's appetite for acquiring newspapers at a time when the industry is distressed continues to grow.

The Guardian (Guardian.co.uk) reported that Buffett's BH Media Group has purchased the Tulsa World, Oklahoma's second largest daily, along with the city's most popular Web site, Tulsaworld.com, for an undisclosed sum from the Lorton family, which has owned the paper since 1917.

 BH Media Group's newspaper-buying frenzy includes the media conglomerate's purchase of 63 newspapers from Media General last year (see "TUOL" post 5/17/12) and its purchase the previous year of the Omaha World Herald (see "TUOL" post 11/30/11), the company's largest daily. Only the group-owned World Herald and the Richmond Times-Dispatch are larger than the Tulsa World's 95,000 daily circulation.

According to the Guardian story, BH Media Group's buying spree now has it owning newspapers, magazines and online publications in nine states.

U.K. Expands Use of Cameras in the Courtroom

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Court of Appeal criminal and civil proceedings will be televised beginning in October, Lord [Igor] Judge told the House of Lords constitution committee, The Guardian reported.

The 71-year-old Judge, who in September will relinquish his position as Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales after five years as head of England's judiciary, said senior judges will be offered training in on-air conduct. Although Ministers want to expand courtroom coverage to crown courts to, at the very least, broadcast judges' comments during sentencing, Judge voiced concerns about televising jury trials of criminal proceedings, fearful that witnesses will be intimidated about giving evidence and that the cameras will be a distraction that could impede justice.

Presently, only the Westminster Court routinely televises its proceedings, according to the Guardian article.

The Guardian Needs an Angel

 (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

The U.K. daily, The Guardian, may soon be an online publication only, according to an article by rival The Telegraph.

As The Guardian faces annual losses of 44 million pounds ($71,145,553) and its parent company, Guardian Media Group ("GMG") contends with its own operating losses of 129 million pounds ($208,548,734), an internal battle over the direction of the publication is being waged, the Telegraph article reports.  Guardian Editor Alan Rusbridger apparently wants to delay ending the print edition until its online version is further developed, while GMG owner, the Scott Trust, according to the More About Advertising Web site, wants to speed the process along to stanch the flow of cash to sustain the print edition.

GMG's holdings include The Guardian, Top Right Group and Trader Media Group. The company has been stymied by employees being slow to accept voluntary buyouts as it attempts to reduce the 650-member editorial workforce by as many as 100 positions.

UPDATE: Elton John Loses London Times Libel Suit

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mr. Justice (Michael) Tugendhat of London's High Court has ruled that a series of London Times articles last June about tax avoidance strategies did not defame singer Sir Elton John, The Guardian reports.

John sued over an article that ran June 21, 2012 entitled Secrets of the Tax Avoiders, that he alleged wrongly linked him to Ingenious Media CEO Patrick McKenna, suggesting McKenna was John's accountant and advised him about circumventing taxes (see "TUOL" post 8/8/12). The rock legend was dissatisfied with a four-line correction that the Times later ran ceding that McKenna was not John's accountant or a second correction that appeared in July saying that Ingenious Media was not implicated in tax avoidance conduct.

Mr. Justice Tugendhat ruled that the language of the Times article was not susceptible to a defamatory meaning. Or as Sir Elton himself once warbled: "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing."

Two Italian Journos Jailed & Fined for Criminal Libel

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)A reporter and an editor for Alto Adige, an Italian newspaper published in Bolzano in south Tyrol, were slapped with a four-month jail sentence and fined 15,000 euros ($18, 441) for criminal libel based on a 2008 article that defamed a Bolzano provincial counselor, The Guardian reports.

Orfeo Donatini, who wrote the article, and his editor, Tiziano Marson, were convicted of criminal libel for alleging that Sven Knoll attended a neo-Nazi summit four years ago. Alto Adige based its article on a police report that also was the subject of an article in the nationwide daily L'Espresso, according to the Guardian article.

After an initial acquittal, the matter was reviewed and the defendants were found guilty by a Bolzano tribunal. A London-based human rights group, eager to challenge Italy's criminal libel penal code provisions, has taken up the cudgel on the journalists' behalf

France Soir Not 'Bon,' Soir, But Banqueroute

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)France Soir, a Paris daily newspaper that at its peak in the 1960s boasted a circulation of 1.5 million, will have its assets auctioned off per a court-ordered liquidation, The Guardian reports.

France Soir was acquired by Sergei Pugachvov, the scion of a Russian billionaire, in 2009, and converted to an online-only publication last December, before he jettisoned the paper in June, after reportedly investing more than 60 million pounds ($94 million) in it, according to the Guardian story. One-hundred eighty jobs were cut when the paper became a Web-only presence, and nearly 50 jobs, 42 held by journalists, will be lost because of the bankruptcy, according to the Guardian article.


France Soir, then called Defense de la France, launched in 1944, but had seen its circulation decline to fewer than 100,000 readers by the year 2000. It surfaced as a populist tabloid in 2006 before Pugachvov swooped in with a major cash infusion.

High Court Finds Two U.K. Dailies in Contempt in Murder Trial Coverage

Levi Bellfield (Photo credit: Wikipedia)In HM Attorney General v. Associated Newspaper Ltd. & Anor [2012] EWHC 2029, the High Court of Justice found The Daily Mirror and The Daily Mail violated the Contempt of Court Act of 1981 (Ch. 49) in their coverage of the trial of Levi Bellfield for the murder of Milly Dowler, The Guardian (www.guardian.com.uk) reports.

Coverage of the trial of Bellfield for the murder of Dowler and attempted kidnapping of Rachel Cowles began in early May 2011. Bellfield, convicted of the murder of two women in 2008, was found guilty of killing Dowler by the jury on June 23, 2011. While the jury was still deliberating on the Cowles kidnapping charge, the Mail and Mirror published articles on June 24, 2011, containing information not previously presented to the jury, the High Court found.

Specifically, the Mail article concerned Bellfield's alleged murder of another woman and the drugging and raping of schoolgirls, while the Mirror wrote about Bellfield's alleged mistreatment of his ex-wife and a former girlfriend, as well as the purported rape of a disabled woman.

The High Court, in a judgment by Sir John Thomas,  found both papers' articles "seriously prejudicial" as had the trial judge, who cited the prejudicial nature of the articles in discharging the jury before it decided the kidnapping allegation.

Although the High Court's decision is consistent with the strict liability provision of the Contempt of Court Act, it is arguable whether a jury that already knew of Bellfield's 2008 homicides and itself had convicted him of Dowler's murder could be prejudicially influenced against him by the Mail and Mirror articles.

Ethiopian Court Brands Six Journalists 'Terrorists'

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)Citing their purported involvement in Ginbot 7, an Ethiopian court has imposed jail terms on six journalists for alleged terrorist activities, The Guardian (www.guardian.com.uk) reports.

Five of the journalists targeted live in exile and were sentenced in absentia, but award-winning blogger Eskinder Naga, received an 18-year prison term for his link to the U.S.-based Ginbot 7, which the authoritarian African regime has designated a terrorist organization. Press freedom advocates and human rights groups are skeptical of the purported underlying terror plot that triggered the prosecutions, according to The Guardian article.

Naga, along with fellow journalists Mesfin Negash, Abiye Teklemariam, Abebe Gellaw, Fasil Yenealem and Abebe Belew, have denied the charges.

High Court: U.K. Tabloid Defamed Man Branded 'Sex Offender'

Image via WikipediaBritish Sunday tabloid, the People, has been ordered to shell out 75,000 pounds ($117,941) to a man it erroneously alleged had raped a 14-year-old girl in the 1970s, The Guardian reported.

High Court Mr. Justice (David) Bean halved his originally intended damages award on Monday because the People publisher Mirror Group Newspapers promptly retracted the accusation and apologized for alleging the natural father of Baby P was a sex offender. Baby P's injury-riddled, bloody body was discovered in August 2007, in his mother's home, according to The Guardian article.

The plaintiff, whose name was withheld for legal reasons, was separated from the toddler's mother. The tabloid leveled its accusation against the plaintiff in a September 19, 2010, article entitled "Tortured to death as mum turned a blind eye."

UPDATE: Public Giggs

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeWelsh soccer star Ryan Giggs, Manchester United's left-winger, this week in London's High Court consented to lifting the anonymity injunction issued last April by Mr. Justice (David) Eady that prevented The Sun from identifying him as the married celebrity allegedly romantically involved with Imogen Thomas, the former Miss Wales and Big Brother competitor.

The Guardian reports that Mr. Justice (Michael) Tugendhat noted anonymity in the matter had been inapplicable since February 1.  That Giggs purportedly engaged in a six-month affair with Thomas was not a state secret as not only did the foreign press "out" him [see "TUOL" post 5/18/11], but also, Brits gleefully tweeted about the relationship and Democrat MP John Hemming identified Giggs in the House of Commons, where he was shielded from the court order by parliamentary privilege.

Mr. Justice Tugendhat is weighing Giggs' claim for damages against The Sun for allegedly invading his privacy.

Broadcaster Tells Tweeting Staffers: 'Sky's the Limit'

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeSatellite television news broadcaster Sky News' social media guidelines are not sitting well with staffers at the 24-hour network that focuses on U.K. and international news.

The Guardian reports that Sky News has admonished its journalists to avoid re-posting Tweets from competing journalists and other Twitter users who aren't part of the Sky News team. Additionally, the company's social media policy prohibits Sky News journalists from using their professional Twitter accounts to post messages about topics unrelated to their beats.

The Guardian's online edition quotes an internal Email from Sky News to staffers encouraging them to re-Tweet Sky News journalists' stories, but cautions: "Do not retweet information posted by other journalists or people on Twitter. Such information could be wrong and has not been through the Sky News editorial process."