Privacy injunction statistics published by Ministry of Justice as part of new pilot scheme

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On Thursday last week the Ministry of Justice published a new report of “experimental” statistics relating to the processing of privacy injunctions at the High Court or Court of Appeal. This follows a recommendation by the Master of the Rolls committee.

The statistics relate to injunctions dealt with in any civil proceedings in the High Court or Court of Appeal in London where the court considers an application for an injunction prohibiting the publication of private or confidential information, the continuation of such an injunction, or an appeal against the grant or refusal of such an injunction.

The report shows that from August to December last year there were four proceedings in the High Court which “considered an application for a new interim injunction”, three where the court “considered whether to continue or amend an interim injunction which had previously been granted” and two where the proceedings involved a consideration of “whether to issue a final, permanent injunction”.

The statistics do not cover injunctions arising from proceedings dealing with family issues, immigration or asylum issues, to proceedings which raise issues of national security, nor to most proceedings dealing with intellectual property and employment issues.

The four applications for new interim injunctions were all said to have been granted by the court.

At the Court of Appeal one further proceeding was also recorded involving “an appeal against a grant or refusal of an interim or final injunction”.

According to the International Forum for Responsible Media (Inforrm) blog, which has looked at the statistics in more detail here, “none of these cases appear to have involved threatened media publication” as “no media defendants were joined”.

Digital news editor @fieldproducer leaving Sky News

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Sky News’s digital news editor Neal Mann, known to 43,000 people on Twitter as @fieldproducer, has announced he has decided to leave the broadcaster.

Mann announced on Twitter on Friday night:

Another Sky colleague, former social media correspondent Ruth Barnett, is also leaving to become head of communications for Android app producer SwiftKey. She wrote on Friday:

Sky News introduced new guidelines for journalists about the use of Twitter last month, including the line: “Do not retweet information posted by other journalists or people on Twitter. Such information could be wrong and has not been through the Sky News editorial process.”

Reuters’ Anthony de Rosa commented at the time:

These new rules will hamstring Neal and make it difficult, if not impossible, for him to continue to do what he did to garner so much appreciation from people like me. I suspect Sky will come to their senses and realize the error of their ways. If not, they’re going to lose one of their best ambassadors in Neal, and I would suspect many people working at Sky may wonder if they’re working for an organization that is writing policies that will drive them into obsolescence.

#followjourn – @samuelluckhurst Samuel Luckhurst/sports reporter

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Who? Samuel Luckhurst

Where? Samuel is UK sports reporter for the Huffington Post and it was announced this week that he will be heading up its new sports section

Twitter? @samuelluckhurst

Just as we like to supply you with fresh and innovative tips, we are recommending journalists to follow online too. Recommended journalists can be from any sector of the industry: please send suggestions (you can nominate yourself) to Rachel at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

The top 10 most-read stories on Journalism.co.uk, 10-16 March

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1. Al Jazeera to broadcast Syria documentary filmed entirely on iPhone

2. BBC: ‘sophisticated cyber-attack’ on London newsroom

3. Ebooks: a new publishing solution to an old business problem?

4. Rebekah Brooks among latest Operation Weeting arrests, reports say

5. Citizen journalism, cyber censorship and the Arab spring

6. Guardian reporter: Police communication being ‘closed down’

7. Shareholders concerned about Sly Bailey pay

8. ‘Cities expect more from newspapers that are ‘local’ in name only’

9. Former NoW reporter: ‘I was instructed to bribe police officers’

10. Syrian citizen journalists win Netizen prize

Journalisted Weekly: Mitt Romney, Lib Dems and Prince Harry

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Journalisted is an independent, not-for-profit website built to make it easier for you, the public, to find out more about journalists and what they write about. It is run by the Media Standards Trust, a registered charity set up to foster high standards in news on behalf of the public, and funded by donations from charitable foundations. Each week Journalisted produces a summary of the most covered news stories, most active journalists and those topics falling off the news agenda, using its database of UK journalists and news sources.

Mitt Romney, Lib Dems and Prince Harry

for the week ending Sunday 11 March

  • Mitt Romney inches towards the Republican presidential nomination
  • LibDem debates about tax, Prince Harry in the Caribbean, and the issue of same sex marriage covered lots
  • An al-Quaeda linked terror attack in Yemen, Spain’s deficit difficulties, and Sarkozy’s lurch to the right, covered little

Covered Lots

  • Mitt Romney inched towards the Republican presidential nomination with 6 victories in 10 states on Super Tuesday, 165 articles
  • The Liberal Democrats got embroiled in internal debates about tax – particularly around their proposal for a Mansion Tax – at the Lib Dems spring conference, 147 articles
  • The issue of gay marriage became controversial – again – after the intervention of Cardinal O’Brien, 125 articles
  • Prince Harry charmed the citizens of Belize, Brazil, the Bahamas and Jamaica on the Diamond Jubilee Tour, 120 articles

Covered Little

  • Yemen militants, who have links with al-Qaeda, attack Government troops, 185 dead, 12 articles
  • Spain’s new Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, gets in a fight with Brussels as he seeks to stop Spain becoming the next Greece, 12 articles
  • Nicholas Sarkozy threatened to pull out of the Schengen zone in an attempt to woo right wing voters prior to the French election, 6 articles

Political ups and downs (top ten by number of articles)

Celebrity vs Serious

  • Rihanna takes a picture of her new hair while semi-naked, and other mischief, 67 articles vs. Ken Clarke reacts to concerns that plans to extend secret courts could threaten open justice, 8 articles
  • The All-American Katy Perry has a new boyfriend 36 articles vs. Steve Hilton – the Prime Minister’s resident ‘guru’ takes a sabbatical from government service to go to America, 30 articles
  • Tulisa, the X-Factor judge, has a tan and a new boyfriend, 26 articles vs. in the Indian elections the ruling party suffered setbacks, damaging the prospects of Rahul Gandhi, 18 articles

Eurozone leaders (top ten by number of articles)

No other Eurozone leaders were mentioned in UK press coverage.

Who wrote a lot about… Syria

Long form journalism

Journalists who have updated their profile

Rob Davies is a city correspondent at the Daily Mail. After he achieved a 2.1 in his MA in English and German Literature, Rob went to the Cardiff Journalism School where he completed the Newspaper Journalism course. He was awarded the MHP Communications ’30 to watch’ award earlier this year. Follow him on twitter @ByRobDavies

Lennox Morrison is a freelance journalist who writes for the Guardian, Independent on Sunday, Wall Street Journal Europe, Metropolitan and the Reader’s Digest. She was an assistant editor for the Scottish Daily Mail as well as being a celebrity interviewer for the Scottish on Sunday. Lennox has also had three books published, Second Chance Tuesday (2004), Scottish Girls About Town (2003) and Re-inventing Tara (2002). Follow her on twitter @LENNOXinFRANCE

All information taken from journalisted profiles as updated (2012-03-13)

If you have a profile on journalisted you can now claim it and start adding articles, links and contact details

Do email team@journalisted.com if you spot any mistakes or have suggestions for other journalisted weekly analyses. You can also follow us on Twitter @journalisted

All Journalisted weekly newsletter statistics are calculated based on articles published on national news websites, BBC News online and Sky News online

The Media Standards Trust, which runs journalisted, won the ‘One to Watch’ category at the Prospect Think Tank Awards

Hacked Off is reporting live from the Leveson inquiry again this week via twitter @hackinginquiry and hackinginquiry.org

Visit the Media Standards Trust’s Churnalism.com – a public service for distinguishing journalism from churnalism

For the latest instalment of Tobias Grubbe, journalisted’s 18th century jobbing journalist, go to journalisted.com/tobias-grubbe

Tool of the week for journalists: Data.gov.uk’s map-based search

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Tool of the week: Data.gov.uk’s map-based search

What is it? An option of searching for data sets by geographical location

How is it of use to journalists? Since the launch of Data.gov.uk just over two years ago, and the promotion of open government data, the site has become a go to place for many journalists in search of a data set.

The site now has a map tool which allows you to search for data by location, potentially useful for journalists working on local news sites, newspapers and radio stations.

The map-based search allows you to draw a search area, submit the area and find data relating to that location.

Not tried your hand at data journalism? This guide written for Journalism.co.uk by Simon Rogers, editor of the Guardian’s Datablog tells you how to get a grip with data journalism.

  • Journalism.co.uk also offers a one or two-day course in data journalism, led by Kevin Anderson. The next introduction to data journalism courses are being held on 9 May or 28 May. The intermediate data journalism course will be on 29 May. Those looking to expand their skills quickly can book on both courses, turning it into a two-day course and saving £50 on the course fees.

Al Jazeera to broadcast Syria documentary filmed entirely on iPhone

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In an interesting development for mobile journalism, Al Jazeera is due to broadcast a documentary tomorrow night (Wednesday, 14 March) on Syria which has been filmed by a journalist using just an iPhone due to safety concerns.

According to a press release, the film, called ‘Syria: Songs of Defiance‘, “follows the journalist, who is not named to protect the people he spoke to, on a journey amongst the uprising in Syria”.

At the start of the documentary, the release adds, the correspondent for Al Jazeera will be heard saying:

I can’t tell you my name. I’ve spent many months secretly in Syria for Al Jazeera.

I cannot show my face and my voice is disguised to conceal my identity, because I don’t want to endanger my contacts in Syria.

Because carrying a camera would be risky, I took my cell phone with me as I moved around the country and captured images from the uprising that have so far remained unseen.

Huffington Post UK’s Facebook app clocks up 20,000 users

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The Huffington Post UK has clocked up 20,000 users of its Facebook app.

The social reader app was added to all pages of the UK site a fortnight ago.

It follows the launch of the Guardian and Independent’s Facebook apps, released in September.

The Huffington Post has opted for an Independent-style Facebook app, which sits within the Huffington Post UK site rather than encouraging readers to access stories within Facebook, as favoured by the Guardian.

Those who sign up for the app and agree to share some of their Facebook details will see their reading habits shared with their Facebook friends.

Carla Buzasi, editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post UK told Journalism.co.uk that there is an option to opt out.

Every time you are on a story and you don’t want that to be shared there’s a delay and you can click and stop it sharing.

The Huffington Post, which launched a UK edition on 6 July, hopes that the app will increase traffic to the UK site, which reported 5.4 million unique views in January.

Buzasi said:

We’re obviously monitoring it quite carefully. It’s a little bit to early to say at the moment but Facebook does send us a significant amount of traffic already.

Is CNN about to buy Mashable?

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Reuters is reporting that CNN is expected to buy social media and technology site Mashable for more than $200 million (£128 million).

Felix Salmon, a Reuters blogger reporting from the annual South by Southwest technology conference held in Austin, Texas, says in a video posted last night (Sunday) that the broadcaster is expected to make an announcement tomorrow (Tuesday, 13 March).

In the video Salmon states:

Mashable is this huge website, it’s got the same kind of consumer focus that CNN does, it’s not aimed for the tech insiders, it’s aimed at the masses.

Mashable was set up in Scotland by Pete Cashmore who was then 19. It now has bases in New York and San Francisco and has more than 20 million monthly readers, according to the Reuters video.

However, paidContent suggests that a deal is far from being announced and suggests the story based on Salmon’s single, unnamed source is merely rumour.

Staci D. Kramer writes:

A source familiar with the situation describes the report of a deal as a rumour and tells paidContent no announcement is scheduled.

Well-known acquisitions of online-only news sites include AOL buying TechCrunch, and its Huffington Post purchase last year on which is spent £195 million.

CNN responded to a request by Journalism.co.uk for comments saying:

We do not engage in speculation about our business and we aren’t commenting on these reports.

Salmon’s video is below:

Met police representatives and crime reporters before Leveson inquiry this week

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Copyright: Sean Dempsey/PA

The Leveson inquiry moves into week three of module two today, starting with evidence from Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick of the Metropolitan Police and Sir Dennis O’Connor, head of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary.

On Tuesday Dick Fedorcio, director of communications at the Met Police, will give appear before the inquiry.

It is expected that Fedorcio will be asked about his relationship with journalists at News International and also about the advice he gave senior officers on socialising with journalists.

On Wednesday morning Jeff Edwards, representing the Crime Reporters’ Association, will give evidence, along with journalists from the Guardian, the Independent and the Times. A written statement from a Daily Telegraph journalist will be read.

On the last day of this week’s hearings evidence will be heard from the Sun’s Mike Sullivan, who was named in the press as one of four current and former journalists at the Sun arrested and bailed by officers from Operation Elveden on Saturday, 28 January.

See the full witness list here.