Law and the Media

Tom Crone is Legal Manager of News International plc, publishers of The Sun, News of the World, The Times and The Sunday Times. After 5 years as a practising Barrister, he became an in-house lawyer for Mirror Group in 1980 and ‘jumped ship’ to join News Group, publishers of The Sun and News of the World in 1985. Since then, he has been at the centre of numerous high profile media cases: Robert Maxwell, Elton John, Ian Botham, George Michael, Sonia Sutcliffe, Bill Roache, Gillian Taylforth, Bruce Grobelaar, Thompson and Venables (the Bulger Killers), and Her Majesty The Queen (twice).

Introduction; Defamation; Blasphemy, seditious Libel and criminal law; Copyright; New media; Rights clearance; Breach of confidence; The Data Protection Act 1998; The 'new' right to privacy; Reporting restrictions; Contempt of court; Protection of journalistic sources; Prior restraint; Obscenity, indecency and incitement to racial hatred; Freedom of information; Official secrets; Parliamentary proceedings and elections; Professional regulatory bodies; Advertising; The Human Rights Act 1998; The law in Scotland; The law in the United States of America; Appendix A: Glossary of terms; Appendix B: Professional bodies; Appendix C: Specimen agreements; Bibliography