Carl Gardner

Theresa May’s treaty with Jordan: this is the game-changer she needs

April 24, 2013

A day after the Court of Appeal refused her permission to appeal to the Supreme Court in the Abu Qatada case, Theresa May’s announcement today of a mutual legal assistance treaty with Jordan seems finally to turn the case in her favour. Here is the treaty: UK-Jordanian Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (PDF) UK-Jordanian Mutual Legal [...]

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Media Reform Coalition consults bloggers and small publishers on press regulation

April 4, 2013

The Media Reform Coalition has spotted that the current proposals in the Crime and Courts Bill, inserted at the last minute to give statutory backing to the press self-regulation system the main parties have agreed on, may not work properly for small and online publishers, like bloggers. So I’m pleased to say it’s decided to [...]

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Crime and Courts Bill: the press regulation provisions

March 29, 2013

Parliament hasn’t yet published a text of the Crime and Courts Bill taking account of the recent Commons and Lords amendments dealing with press regulation. But seeing the provisions as they stand today may help discussion of the proposed system – which is widely misunderstood. So I’ve put together a version of the press regulation [...]

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The press regulation jigsaw’s missing piece: writers

March 28, 2013

In Monday’s Lords debate about the new press regulation provisions inserted into the Crime and Courts Bill, one line stands out above all. Discussing an amendment about the vicarious liability of publishers, justice minister Lord McNally said (column 876): the liability of individual journalists at common law remains as it is now. Although said in [...]

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Press regulation: the international aspect

March 26, 2013

An exchange in last night’s Lords debate on the new press regulation clauses in the Crime and Courts Bill revealed a little-noticed – and no doubt to some, astonishing – aspect of the proposed system: it covers foreign publishers. Lord Lucas raised the issue (column 854): I am sure that this is my misreading, but [...]

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Costs protection for regulated publishers in the Crime and Courts Bill: a small analgesic

March 26, 2013

I wrote the other day that I was confused about a new clause inserted into the Crime and Courts Bill, as a result of cross-party agreement on press regulation. As originally drafted it protected regulated publishers from costs awards in libel cases, for instance, if the issues raised by the claim could have been resolved [...]

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Why press regulation should cover blogs

March 24, 2013

In my last post, I said I was worried that the press self-regulation scheme agreed by the main political parties (and to be underpinned by a Royal Charter and two pieces of legislation) would not offer bloggers what it offers the press. Let me explain my worries – and why I think every type of [...]

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The Leveson Royal Charter deal

March 23, 2013

Just before Lord Justice Leveson reported in November, I wrote in support of statutory press regulation: Only legislation can require newspapers to submit even to their own enforcement of their own code … What statute – and no other arrangement – can do is set up a genuinely independent regulator: independent not only of the [...]

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The Winslow Boy

March 22, 2013

Charlie Rowe as Ronnie Winslow | Photo: Nobby Clark Terence Rattigan’s famous play, about a father’s fight for justice for his son, was first staged in London in 1946; and Lindsay Posner’s production at the Old Vic makes you feel you’ve seen it as it might have been presented then. It has a consciously old-fashioned aesthetic, [...]

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Abu Qatada’s bail conditions

March 11, 2013

Abu Qatada’s back in court today – or his lawyers will be, at least, contesting Theresa May’s appeal against the judgment of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission last November, which ruled that she acted unlawfully in not revoking her deportation order against Qatada. The underlying reason was that she could not satisfy SIAC that deportation to Jordan [...]

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