Seminars and Events Archive
An archive of past events at the Centre for Law, Justice and Journalism.
March 2012
CLJJ Seminar: Feeding the feral beast: how politicians and the media collude to undermine good governance
CLJJ Seminar: The new General Comment 34 on the Right to Freedom of Expression under the ICCPR
February 2012
Justice Wide Open: Open justice in the digital age
October 2011
CLJJ Annual Lecture 2011, Baroness Buscombe: Changing times and changing media regulation
June 2011
The Initiative on Impunity and the Rule of Law Safety and Protection of Journalists: A Responsibility for the World
February 2011
CLJJ Seminar: The troubles of telling: journalists' legal obligations to disclose information to the authorities
January 2011
ESRC Seminar Series: Widening Ethnic Diversity in the News Media Workforce
November 2010
Dollars, Donors and Democracy: Money and Politics in the US and UK
October 2010
CLJJ Seminar: Coverage of murder cases and trials in the Flemish press. A longitudinal approach.
April 2010
March 2010
Price Monroe International Media Moot 2010
CLJJ Inaugural lecture, Mr Justice Eady: Protecting free speech in the context of the European Convention of Human Rights
CLJJ Seminar: Feeding the feral beast: how politicians and the media collude to undermine good governance
Prof. Jon Silverman (Professor of Media and Criminal Justice
at the University of Bedfordshire) at City University London, 14th March AG11
CLJJ Seminar: The new General Comment 34 on the Right to Freedom of Expression under the ICCPR
Prof. Sir Nigel Rodley KBE (Human Rights Centre. Essex University, Doughty Street Chambers and member of the UN Human Rights Committee) at City University London, 7th March 2012 - CHANGE OF ROOM -AG11
Justice Wide Open: Open justice in the digital age
Wednesday 29th February 2012, 9am - 2pm at City University London, room A130 in College Building
This free SRA and BSB accredited (3 CPD points) half-day seminar hosted by the Centre for Law, Justice and Journalism brought together practitioners and academics from law and journalism to look at the future of legal knowledge in the 21st century. And to examine the history and context of the flow of legal knowledge and open justice, as well as court reporting and the media.
For further information please view the project page for Justice Wide Open, where you can find the audio recording and publication as well as speaker details and photos. (Coming soon)
CLJJ Annual Lecture 2011, Baroness Buscombe: Changing times and changing media regulation
The public rightly demands stronger powers for dealing with the misconduct of the press. In this lecture Baroness Buscombe will outline the need to preserve and build upon what is good about the current way the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) works. For example, much of the current, pro-active work of the PCC, particularly pre-publication, remains private. As well as tackling the issues of regulating the press whilst maintaining a free press, especially with growth of online media.
For more information, video and transcript
The Initiative on Impunity and the Rule of Law
Working Conference: "Safety and Protection of Journalists: A Responsibility for the World"
1 June 2011, City University London
A policy Research and Advocacy Project of the Centre for Law, Justice and Journalism (CLJJ) at City University London, and the Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM) at the University of Sheffield.
details of the event and project
CLJJ Seminar: The troubles of telling: journalists' legal obligations to disclose information to the authorities
Given by Dr Lawrence McNamara (Reader in Law at the University of Reading) to the students and members of the CLJJ on 2nd February 2011.
British counter-terrorism laws oblige journalists to disclose information to the authorities in some circumstances. Under the Terrorism Act 2000, where a journalist comes to believe that a person possess property or money that is being used or may in future be used for the purposes of terrorism, then they must tell the authorities of their belief and provide the information on which that belief is based. A failure to do so constitutes a criminal offence and leaves a journalist liable to prosecution and imprisonment. These laws - which are both very broad and very uncertain in their operation - raise complex legal, ethical and practical issues for journalists and media organizations. They potentially have significant affects on news gathering and reporting in the UK and beyond. This paper examines the operation of these laws, drawing especially on interviews with journalists, lawyers, police, and other security and government officials to examine both the potential and actual effects of the laws. In doing so, it also explores the methodological difficulties of researching how the laws operate, the democratic implications of these and related laws which affect the media (especially with regard to the significance of investigative journalism), and the extent to which such laws are consistent with the wider goals of the UK government's counter-terrorism strategy.
Biographical note: Dr Lawrence McNamara is a Reader in Law at the University of Reading. Before joining Reading in 2007, Lawrence taught in Australian universities for several years. His research interests lie primarily in the legal regulation of speech, especially as it relates to the media. He is the author of Reputation and Defamation (Oxford University Press, 2007). His current research focuses on the ways that counter-terrorism laws affect the media. He holds a joint ESRC/AHRC Fellowship in Ideas and Beliefs for a three-year research project (2009-2012) titled 'Law, Terrorism and the Right to Know' (www.reading.ac.uk/LTRK). The Fellowship is funded under the RCUK research programme, Global Uncertainties: Security for All in a Changing World.
ESRC Seminar Series: Widening Ethnic Diversity in the News Media Workforce
"What are the barriers to retention for black and minority ethnic communities in the media".
18 January 2011
Dollars, Donors and Democracy: Money and Politics in the US and UK
11 November 2010
Reframing Libel
4 November 2010 - leading lawyers and journalists gather at City University London to debate the future of libel reform, as Lord Lester's bill progresses through Parliament.
Reframing Libel livestreamed recording.
CLJJ Seminar: Coverage of murder cases and trials in the Flemish press. A longitudinal approach.
Given by Dr Rozane de Cock (CLJJ Visiting Scholar) to the students and members of the CLJJ on 6th October 2010.
In this seminar we will focuses on the changes over time in court reporting on murder cases in a sample of Belgian newspapers (1919 up till now). Critics claim that court reporting is increasingly becoming more sensationalised and that the media's attention for this topic is expanding. This leads to what they call "tabloid justice": it appears that the press decides who is guilty and who is not. The shocking and appealing aspects of crimes are overexposed causing the entertainment function of the press to get the upper hand at the expense of its informative role. Our analysis concentrates on the most serious crimes, those that are heard by the Belgian court of assizes. Most people have no personal experience with serious crimes nor judicial procedures. This makes people especially dependent for their information on the media's portrayal. Our research examines whether there is a significant rise in the number of press articles covering murder trials and whether a change of reporting style can be seen over time. Next to a quantitative content analysis, the research consists of qualitative reading of the texts (use of metaphors, representation of the defendant in our society etc) and in-depth interviews with journalists specialised in court reporting.
Biographical note: Rozane De Cock (phd Social Sciences 2007) is professor at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium), a member of the Centre for Media Culture and Communication Technology (KULeuven) and a member of the Brussels Centre of Journalism Studies (HUB-Brussels). During the writing of her phd on court reporting of murder cases in Belgian newspapers, she became interested in the interdisciplinary field of journalism, justice and law. She teaches several courses (News Production and News Reception; Qualitative Methods of Communication Research; News Effects and An Introduction to Communication Sciences) at the KULeuven and the HUB. Besides this academic point of view, her former job as an editor at the largest Belgian newspaper offers her background information of the profession "from within". Among other presentations this year, she contributed at the 'Justice, Media and Public: Changing Public Perceptions in the New Media Landscape' conference, in Keele (UK) last March. This presentation was entitled "Nothing but Tabloid Justice and Distorted Court Reporting? The Opinion of Lawyers on the Credibility of Justice News".
Public Service Media
29 April 2010 - synopsis and video of the Symposium held on The Public Sphere and Public Service Media
A Global Surveillance Society
13-15 April 2010
Price Monroe International Media Moot 2010
A report from the students representing City University at the University of Oxford's Moot Competition.
CLJJ Inaugural lecture, Mr Justice Eady
Protecting free speech in the context of the European Convention of Human Rights.
Researching Crime and Media: Issues in Theory and Method
Thursday 18 February 2010 - panel discussion to celebrate the launch of Crime and Media: A Reader, London: Routledge 2009
Journalism as a Human Right
Wednesday 9 December 2009 - Seminar
John Hartley proposed that journalism should not be seen as a professional practice but as a human right.
Science Fact - science journalism and libel law
Thursday 15 October 2009 - debate on libel law in science journalism.