Phone hacking scandal court case

The following figure shows the structure of the UK Judicial system. The UK legal system is almost a 1, year evaluation of the legal system. The UK Judicial System lies on three pillars:. The separation of law is that a certain degree of independence power to the functions, which are legislative House of Lord , executive Cabinet and judicial Judges functions of government Rivlin, The Rule of Law is defined as the legal relationship between the citizens and state of the government.

Apart from the principal source of UK law, there are various lawmaking institutions such as The European Union Law making institutions, the Courts, Regulatory bodies and International institutions. There is a great need for the freedom of expression of society, which is independent, and it should be just.

The media uses this right to inquire about any influential body or story. It is self-regulating and runs free of any statutory rules. The Press Complaint Commission PCC was formed by the Press industry itself and it provides a guideline for media professionals rather than laws.

PCC has its own code of practice containing 16 articles, which cover a wide range of issues including harassment, intrusion, children, privacy, accuracy, listening devices, confidential sources, discrimination payment for articles PCC, The balance of this action cannot be maintained just by self-regulation and it has failed to.

Other systems seem to be working well enough for the different industries and different authorities. After the news of a murdered schoolgirl, Milly Dowler, whose phone had been hacked by the News of the World, Prime Minister David Cameron set up a public inquiry about the press ethics. A new system of press regulation was called for after Leveson published a 1, page report in November The report also mentioned that the press made a lot of people to face hardship and also caused chaos for some innocent people, and they have been looked down on their rights and freedom Castella, T.

To find out if a regulation is good enough, we need to take a look at the UK Better Regulation Task Force of in which is laid out five principles of good regulation, which are used by the Department of Business Innovation and Skills still today, saying that the regulation must be:. RIPA section 1 1 describes that unlawful interception of any communication such as a public postal service or public telecommunication service is an offense. Section 1 7 a and b clearly indicates that a person who does that will be punished with up to 2 years sentence or fine or both.

RIPA part 3 section 53 introduced that failure to comply with a notice to disclose the key for protecting information is an offense and a person or organization who does that will be punished under this act up to a maximum sentence.

Where there is no authorization to perform covert affairs with regards to the right to human privacy, under article 8 of the European convention of human rights it is considered unlawful by virtue of section 6 of the Human Rights Act Telegraph, Local authorities are strongly recommended to obtain authorization under the Power Act where the surveillance is likely to interfere with human rights.

There are several press reports about public authorities performing covert surveillance affairs of individuals, with the misuse and implication of the power, and also the unlawful interference of human privacy Walsall Government UK, Several requests were forwarded to the councils concerning its affairs of covert surveillance, access to communication data, and the use of RIPA Walsall Government UK, A regular internal report for RIPA was considered by the councillors to make sure RIPA is consistently adhered to in accordance with the council policy to retain its purpose and no other further authorization beyond that Telegraph, It provides certain conditions to the local authorities and they must be followed when they carry out those surveillances under RIPA According to Brightbrotherwatch, , from to there were cases filed under the RIPA act.

It also discovered that only 4. Brightbrotherwatch concluded that local councils must not have RIPA power and if they need it then they should have a permission or warrant from the magistrate court, and the case must be investigated by the police, not local councils. When RIPA was introduced, only nine public organizations were granted power, but now more than public organizations are granted power to intercept communication, which can create a serious threat to privacy and freedom.

As we discussed earlier, it is proven that misuse of this act is inevitable. Removing the power of the local authorities and getting warrants from magistrates can reduce this serious issue. Also, this act only be used when there is a serious threat to the nation, and not for civil cases. Gold and Schifreen, who tried to connect and retrieve private information from a British telecom organization Edshare Soton, CMA acts as a guide to many countries to adopt such laws.

Although this act is very strong enough and is in place, very few cases took place and were convicted in the last 30 years. The problem is that most of the cases occurred due to ignorance of not being aware of what happened. Tracing the person who does this activity is very difficult and time consuming, and often the least of the damage cannot be retrieved, even if the offender is caught.

There are many people have been convicted and sentenced under cybercrime laws due to various computer-related wrongdoing such as stealing information and spreading viruses. The Great British Bake Off host Noel Fielding, former Girls Aloud member Cheryl Tweedy, and singer Natalie Imbruglia are among the latest individuals to bring phone-hacking claims against the publisher of the Mirror, as companies continue to deal with the costly fallout of widespread illegal behaviour at their newspapers.

Fifteen years after the phone-hacking scandal began, more than 20 individuals have recently filed legal proceedings against the owner of the Mirror, with more cases waiting in the wings. Many of those who have launched legal proceedings against the publisher of the Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People were at the height of their fame in the mids. Model Sadie Frost, who was one of the first celebrities to win phone-hacking damages from the Mirror back in , has also now been joined by her son Rafferty Law, her sister Jade Davidson and her mother Mary Davidson in bringing cases against the publisher.

I did my bit to help with the legal process. I feel very sorry for the victims. Hamlins, the lead lawyers for the remaining 50 phone-hacking claimants, have added him to the overall pleaded case. Allegations against Lewis have also been put into evidence in a witness statement by Callum Galbraith, a lawyer at Hamlins, on behalf of the phone-hacking victims. Information provided by Lewis to the Metropolitan police during the hacking inquiry, including thousands of emails from Sun journalists, prompted the arrest of dozens of News International journalists.

Lawyers representing victims of phone hacking are also seeking a legal ruling to extend the time period of admissible claims to