Communications Law

Communications Law

Communications Law is a well-respected, peer reviewed, quarterly journal covering the broad spectrum of legal issues arising in the telecoms, IT and media industries Each issue brings you 32 pages of opinion and discussion from the field of communications law.

Editor in Chief:

Dr Peter Coe, Lecturer in Law, University of Reading; Research Associate, Information Law and Policy Centre, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London

Editors:

• Paul Chamberlain, Solicitor, Archerfield Partners LLP
• Clive Davies, Senior Lawyer, Fujitsu Services
• Brian Dowrick, Senior Lecturer in Law, Law School, University of South Wales
• Dr Faith Gordon, Lecturer in Criminology, the School of Social Sciences, Monash University
• Howard Johnson, Part-time Senior Teaching Fellow, Cardiff Law School
• Rebecca Moosavian, Lecturer in Law, University of Leeds
• Dr Laura Scaife, Associate, McDermott Will & Emery
• Brian Pillans, Lecturer in Law, Glasgow Caledonian University
• Dr Judith Townend, Senior Lecturer in Media and Information Law, University of Sussex
• Dr Paul Wragg, Associate Professor of Law, University of Leeds

News Editor:

Campbell Deane, Bannatyne, Kirkwood, France & Co, Glasgow

Advisory Panel:

• Eduardo Bertoni, Global Clinical Professor, NYU. Representative of the Regional Office for South America of the Inter American Institute of Human Rights. He was the first Director of the Access to Public Information Agency (AAIP) which is the Argentine Data Protection and Access to Information Authority.
• Richard Caddell, Lecturer in Law, Cardiff Universtity
• Michael Epstein, Professor of Law, Southwestern Law School, Los Angeles; Supervising Editor of the Journal of International Media and Entertainment Law
• Simon Gallant, Consultant, Gallant Maxwell
• Thomas Gibbons, School of Law, University of Manchester
• David Goldberg, Senior Honorary Visiting Fellow, Institute of Computer Communications, Queen Mary, University of London
• Wolfgang Kleinwächter, University of Aarhus, Special Adviser to the Chair of the UN Internet Governance Forum
• Jeremy Landau, Partner, Taylor Wessing LLP
• David Rolph, Professor of Law, University of Sydney
• Michael D Scott, Professor of Law, Southwestern Law School, Los Angeles; Director, International IT Law Summer Programme in London
• Gavin Sutter, Research Fellow, Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary, University of London
• Professor Ian Walden, Head of the Institute of Computer and Communications Law, Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary, University of London and consultant to Baker & McKenzie
• Kyu Ho Youm, Jonathan Marshall First Amendment Chair Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon

2024

This article examines how the UK press regulators balance freedom of expression against protecting transgender people from discriminatory reporting amid the growing polarisation over trans rights. It provides the first comprehensive analysis of IPSO’s and IMPRESS’ rulings on trans-related complaints, offering novel insights into the intersections of news production, audience reception and press regulation. The research reveals that IPSO’s myopic approach overlooks the prejudicial nuances in humour, visuals and the interplay between inaccuracy and discrimination, allowing dominant trans stereotypes criticised in the Leveson Report to persist. Conversely, IMPRESS’ engagement with trans issues is very limited compared to IPSO’s but its newly-adopted ‘discursive harm’ model is a promising step in the right direction. The paper concludes that it is only by prioritising the standpoints of marginalised trans people and firmly incorporating these into journalistic practices and press regulation that news media can contribute constructively to the public dialogue over trans inclusion.