In an important ruling in the phone hacking litigation ([2013] EWHC 2119 (Ch)), the new managing judge, Mann J held that Norwich Pharmacal disclosure could be ordered against the Metropolitan Police despite the fact that they did not “participate” in the original wrongdoing.

In March 2013 Carina Trimingham’s appeal in her claim against Associated Newspapers for harassment, misuse of private information and breach of copyright will be heard by the Court of Appeal. The High Court case and permission to appeal has already been covered by this blog, however this case also raises interesting points in light of the Leveson Report.

This week a teenager from Lancashire was sent to prison for making sick and incredibly distasteful jokes on his facebook page concerning missing 5 year old April Jones and Madeline Macann. Matthew Woods, who is 19 years old, is said to have adapted the jokes from Sickapedia, a website which publishes sick jokes, and posted them ‘in a moment of drunken stupidity’. Woods pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 weeks imprisonment.

The European Court of Human Rights has held in a judgment handed down on 24 July 2012 that the display of a flag with ‘controversial historical connotations’ was protected under Article 10. The applicant had been displaying the controversial Árpád striped flag, which has links to fascism and the Arrow Cross Regime, in Budapest on a day that the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) was holding a demonstration against racism and hatred.

Articles on Levi Bellfield published in the Daily Mirror and the Daily Mail have been held to be in contempt of court. The articles in question formed part of an ‘avalanche of publicity’ by both print and broadcast media following Bellfield’s conviction on 23 June 2011 for the murder and kidnapping of Milly Dowler.

On Sunday 17 February 2013 the “Daily Telegraph” published an article entitled, “Hugh Grant: Here’s the latest on my private life”. This disingenuous piece purports to highlight the supposed hypocrisy of Mr Grant, who is a board member of Hacked Off and campaigns against press intrusion, in announcing the birth of his son on twitter. The article says