The offence of misconduct in public office should be repealed or radically reformed, the Law Commission heard yesterday (Wednesday 20 January 2016).   The growth in use of the historic common law offence, uncertainty of application, liability to misuse and...

The Home Secretary has clarified the nature of the judicial protection in the draft Investigatory Powers Bill, but avoided addressing the issue of codified protection for journalists and their sources. While giving oral evidence to the Joint Committee on the...

Politicians from across the political spectrum have come against proposed changes to the Freedom of Act which would see the transparency of public bodies reduced. MPs and Lords from the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems, UKIP and the Green Party have...

BBC Trust chairman Rona Fairhead told MPs this week that the Trust has been encouraging the BBC to work with the local press industry and explore partnership initiatives such as a “data bank” of BBC local news or a...

Tower Hamlets is to axe flagship council newspaper East End Life following a sustained campaign against council papers which compete against independent commercial local news media by the News Media Association. The Evening Standard reported this week that Tower Hamlets...

Sir Keir Starmer has quoted the News Media Association’s submission to the committee considering the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill, saying the current regulatory framework “poses a threat to journalism, journalists and their sources.” The Joint Committee considering the Draft...

News Media Association members are invited to attend the launch of News Media Europe at an event in Brussels later this month. Hosted by incoming president of NME, Fernando de Yarza Lopez, chief executive of Grupo Heraldo in Spain, the lunchtime...

Removing universities from the scope of the Freedom of Information Act could remove nearly £4 billion of taxpayers’ money from public scrutiny, more than the budget of some central Government departments, the News Media Association has said today. Responding to...

European law-making institutions have strengthened the media exemption in the draft Trade Secrets Directive, in a political breakthrough that should pave the way to it being adopted later this year. The Directive, which aims to harmonise EU-wide protection for commercially...