ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the impact which the European Convention on Human Rights has had on laws which have a significant bearing on media, and especially press, content. It shows how the Convention, and, in the UK the Human Rights Act 1998, have helped to protect responsible journalism whilst at the same time restraining intrusion and privacy invasion by sections of the press. The first case in which the UK was found guilty of a breach of Article 10 by the European Court, The Sunday Times v UK, actually resulted in a change to one of the laws which have a distinct bearing on what the media can and cannot report, namely the law of contempt. The British government had stopped The Sunday Times publishing an article about the marketing of thalidomide in case it prejudiced court cases involving claims for civil damages by victims of the drug, although these had long been stalled in the courts.
