Category Archives: Newspapers

Concern over French bill that cracks down on photos identifying police

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Journalists call for removal of clause that would ban footage disseminated ‘with intent to harm’ officers

A proposed bill in France that would make it illegal to disseminate photographs or videos identifying police and gendarmes “with intent to harm” is a danger to press freedom, critics have warned.

The measure comes amid growing concern about allegations of police violence in the country. It is outlined in draft global security legislation to be presented to the Assemblée Nationale next week.

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Heard lost public sympathy for standing up against Depp assaults, says QC

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Abused women expected to be ‘meek and subservient’ to receive public sympathy, says QC

Amber Heard’s stand against Johnny Depp’s assaults should not have deprived her of public sympathy for suffering the ordeal of domestic violence, a leading human rights lawyer has said.

Heard was subjected to death threats and misogynistic attacks on social media during the libel trial that left her feeling “down and beleaguered”, according to Helena Kennedy QC, who met Heard while the case was before the high court.

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Robert Fisk obituary

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Veteran journalist and author whose postings read like a battle roll of the post-colonial wars he despised

Robert Fisk would have been amused, if unsurprised, by the plethora of reactions, from the adulatory to the sharply critical, prompted by the news of his death, at the age of 74. As a journalist, commentator and author, in a five-decade career that focused overwhelmingly on the Middle East, Fisk expressed strong views about who was responsible for the region’s agonies, and provoked equally strong responses.

Even a partial list of his postings and assignments reads like the battle roll of the post-colonial wars he despised: post-revolution Lisbon, Belfast, Tehran, Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad, Algiers, Kabul, Sarajevo.

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Johnny Depp’s defeat in libel case hailed by domestic violence charities

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The trial highlighted tactics used to silence and discredit victims, say campaigners

Johnny Depp’s defeat in the London libel courts has been hailed by domestic violence charities as a victory that should encourage other victims to come forward and seek justice.

The judgment on Monday by the high court that the Sun was justified in describing the Pirates of the Caribbean star as a “wife beater” was welcomed by lawyers and campaign groups who support those who have experienced domestic abuse.

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Johnny Depp loses libel case against Sun over claims he beat ex-wife Amber Heard

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Pirates of Caribbean actor had sued newspaper publisher for damage to his reputation

The Hollywood actor Johnny Depp has lost his high-stakes libel action in the London courts against the Sun after the newspaper described him as a “wife beater”.

The high court dismissed the claim by the Pirates of the Caribbean star for compensation at the end of one of the most widely followed libel trials of the century. His lawyers said he would most likely appeal against the “perverse and bewildering decision”.

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Twitter lifts freeze from New York Post account after policy reversal

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Latest move in an ongoing saga comes after CEO Jack Dorsey was grilled by Republican lawmakers during a Senate hearing on Wednesday

Twitter said on Friday it had changed its policy and lifted a freeze it placed on the account of the New York Post after the newspaper published controversial articles about Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.

It is the latest move in an ongoing saga that called into question the moderation policies of social media platforms. Both Twitter and Facebook took measures to limit the spread of an article published by the New York Post on 14 October, which claimed to be based on documents gleaned from an abandoned computer belonging to the Democratic candidate’s son.

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Facebook and Twitter restrict controversial New York Post story on Joe Biden

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Social media platforms move to limit spread of article amid questions over its veracity

Facebook and Twitter took steps on Wednesday to limit the spread of a controversial New York Post article critical of Joe Biden, sparking outrage among conservatives and stoking debate over how social media platforms should tackle misinformation ahead of the US election.

In an unprecedented step against a major news publication, Twitter blocked users from posting links to the Post story or photos from the unconfirmed report. Users attempting to share the story were shown a notice saying: “We can’t complete this request because this link has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially harmful.” Users clicking or retweeting a link already posted to Twitter are shown a warning the “link may be unsafe”.

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‘Covid-19 in the White House’ – what the papers say after Trump’s positive test

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British newspaper front pages as the US president, Donald Trump, goes into hospital with coronavirus

Some of the UK papers play the big story of the moment with a fairly straight bat but others draw attention to the irony of Donald Trump testing positive for coronavirus, having repeatedly played down the pandemic.

The i puts one of the president’s innumerable tweets at the centre of its front page. The headline is “Covid-19 in the White House” and the tweet from February says: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA”.

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Hero’s welcome for Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai after release on bail

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Apple Daily founder and pro-democracy activist returns to office following arrest under national security law

The Hong Kong pro-democracy figure and media mogul Jimmy Lai received a hero’s welcome as he returned to his newspaper after being arrested on allegations of foreign collusion, while Chinese state media labelled him a “genuine traitor”.

Lai, his sons, senior executives from his Next Digital media company and others including the activist Agnes Chow were detained under Beijing’s national security law on Monday. Hundreds of police officers also raided the offices and newsroom of Apple Daily, the popular tabloid Lai founded, in a move decried as an assault on press freedom.

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Donald Trump denies asking how to add face to Mount Rushmore

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White House reportedly asked South Dakota official about expanding monument

Donald Trump has denied that his team ever approached South Dakota’s governor about adding his face to the iconic monument depicting four presidents at Mount Rushmore. However, he added that it sounded like a good idea.

The New York Times reported a Republican party official source on Saturday stating that a White House aide reached out to Kristi Noem’s office with the question: “What’s the process to add additional presidents to Mount Rushmore?”

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India arrests dozens of journalists in clampdown on critics of Covid-19 response

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Reporters for independent outlets, many in rural areas, say pressure won’t deter them from covering embarrassing stories

Facing a continuing upward trajectory in Covid-19 cases, the Indian government is clamping down on media coverage critical of its handling of the pandemic.

More than 50 Indian journalists have been arrested or had police complaints registered against them, or been physically assaulted.

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Meghan’s friends entitled to ‘super-charged confidentiality’, high court told

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Duchess of Sussex suing owner of Mail on Sunday and Mail Online in privacy battle

Lawyers for the Duchess of Sussex have claimed five female friends who spoke anonymously to a US magazine to defend her against British tabloid bullying are entitled to a “super-charged right of confidentiality” as she fought to protect their identities in her privacy battle against the Mail on Sunday.

Forcing her to make public their names was an “unacceptable price to pay” for pursuing her legal action over publication of extracts from a private letter she wrote to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, 75, the high court in London heard.

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Amber Heard ‘placing faith in justice’ as Depp lawyer calls her an abuser

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High court hears closing remarks in three-week libel case exposing couple’s relationship

Amber Heard has spoken of her trauma at reliving the breakup of her marriage, saying she is “placing her faith in British justice” as Johnny Depp’s lawyer branded her a “compulsive liar” and the “abuser” in the couple’s relationship.

As the libel action brought by Depp against the publishers of the Sun newspaper ended on Tuesday, Heard was booed and heckled by Depp fans who have gathered daily outside the high court in London for the proceedings over allegations that the Pirates of the Caribbean star had been violent towards her.

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Johnny Depp wanted Amber Heard ‘barefoot, pregnant – and at home’, court told

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Heard became ‘nervous wreck’ at auditions, fearing Depp’s reaction, acting coach says

Johnny Depp wanted Amber Heard “barefoot and pregnant – and at home”, her acting coach told the high court in London as she outlined her growing suspicions that the Pirates of the Caribbean actor was hitting his wife.

Kristina Sexton, Heard’s friend and then acting coach, said she had not seen Depp “hit, kick or throw anything” at Heard, but she was aware of the “volatility” of their relationship and had “overheard some serious fights” while waiting to start her coaching sessions.

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Amber Heard: Johnny Depp threatened to carve up my face

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Court hears testimony from actor’s ex-wife, who says he was abusive and violent

Johnny Depp threatened to carve and disfigure Amber Heard’s face if she left him, repeatedly demeaned her and often physically attacked her, she has told the high court.

Opening the defence case in the libel trial initiated by the Pirates of the Caribbean star, Heard said her former husband insulted her and on one occasion told her: “I’m going to have to watch you get raped.”

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Meghan blames ‘intrusive’ UK tabloids for falling-out with father

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Details of father/daughter financial relationship disclosed as part of Mail on Sunday lawsuit

The Duchess of Sussex has blamed British tabloids for destroying her relationship with her father, claiming he received “significant payments” for providing quotes to newspapers and commentators.

Meghan’s lawyers said she and Thomas Markle “had a very close father/daughter relationship throughout her childhood and remained close until he was targeted three years ago by intrusive UK tabloid media”.

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Johnny Depp told bodyguard that Amber Heard ‘cut my finger off’

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Malcolm Connolly invented story that the actor damaged his hand himself, court hears

Johnny Depp’s bodyguard has said the actor initially made up an excuse after his wife allegedly severed his finger during a row because victims often try to protect their abusers.

Giving evidence in Depp’s libel action against the Sun over an article that labelled him a “wife beater”, Malcolm Connolly was questioned about an incident in 2015 when Depp and his then wife, Amber Heard, were in Australia for the filming of one of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Depp has accused Heard of cutting off the tip of his finger when she hurled a vodka bottle, but wrote at the time that he had caused the injury himself.

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Johnny Depp accused of suffering ‘blackouts’ over violent behaviour

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Court hears allegation that film star was too intoxicated to recall assaulting Amber Heard

The film star Johnny Depp has been accused in court of suffering “blackouts” and having no recollection of his violent past because of his excessive drinking and drug-taking.

During his second day in the witness box at the high court in London, the 57-year-old actor faced allegations that his self-destructive behaviour and jealousy of his ex-wife Amber Heard led him to assault her repeatedly in the course of their four-year relationship.

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Rowling, Rushdie and Atwood warn against ‘intolerance’ in open letter

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Harper’s letter asserts way to ‘defeat bad ideas is by exposure, argument, and persuasion’, but critics accuse authors of censorious mentality

JK Rowling, Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood are among the signatories to a controversial open letter warning that the spread of “censoriousness” is leading to “an intolerance of opposing views” and “a vogue for public shaming and ostracism”.

Rowling, whose beliefs on transgender rights have recently seen scores of Harry Potter fans distance themselves from her, said she was “proud to sign this letter in defence of a foundational principle of a liberal society: open debate and freedom of thought and speech”.

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Johnny Depp’s barrister tells court Amber Heard invented abuse claims

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Libel case against Sun newspaper over term ‘wife-beater’ begins in UK high court

Amber Heard, not Johnny Depp, was the one who started fights during their marriage, the high court has been told at the start of a libel battle involving the divorced Hollywood actors.

It was Heard who was “the abuser” and who invented claims that her former partner was a “wife-beater”, according to an opening statement submitted to the court by Depp’s barrister, David Sherborne.

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