Keir Starmer QC tagged posts

July 7, 2013,  Essential Law for Marketers, Guru in a Bottle, Legal update  No comments

INTRODUCTION

Ever since the furore over the UK phone hacking scandal in 2011 engulfed the owners of News International as well as politicians of all political parties, the Government and law enforcement officers, the issue of privacy and electronic communications has become a national obsession.

The public revulsion that followed the disclosure of the hacking of private phone messages of murder and terrorist victims and war widows didn’t just rip apart the UK’s biggest selling Sunday newspaper the News of the World but also raised serious questions about the legal safeguards in place to protect an individual’s right to privacy whilst at the same time protecting freedom of...

June 30, 2013,  Guru in a Bottle  2 comments

Keir Starmer QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions has just published (20 June 2013) the finalised guidelines on circumstances under which prosecutors may pursue a legal action against those who post comments on social media.

What’s clear is that the CPS guidelines don’t create some form of ‘litigants’ charter’ where the police and the CPS are automatically involved in every instance of social media comment considered as rude, distasteful or even painful to those on the receiving end.

The guidelines indicate that there may be mitigating circumstances under which those making unguarded and grossly offensive comments on Twitter or Facebook but repent by taking them ...