Now in its fifth edition, this textbook combines comprehensive coverage with rigorous analysis of a key area of the law. The author illuminates how the courts strive to strike a balance between the freedoms and responsibilities of the press on the one hand and an individual’s right to privacy on the other.
Maintaining its coverage of the law across the UK (including Scotland and Northern Ireland) and the EU, the new edition has been brought up to date with expert insights into significant developments and judgments, including:
- the impact of changes in intellectual property law, data protection, GDPR and copyright law post Brexit – including the cases of Schrems II and Ed Sheeran;
- analysis of new case law and developments in privacy and freedom of the media – including Duchess of Sussex (Meghan Markle) v The Mail on Sunday and ZXC v Bloomberg;
- the introduction of new Scottish defamation laws and the importance of defamatory meaning;
- the response to disinformation, fake news and social media – including tweeting jurors and contempt.
With a variety of pedagogical features to encourage critical thinking, this unique textbook is essential reading for media and entertainment law courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and an insightful resource for students and reflective practitioners of journalism, public relations and media studies.
Biography
Ursula Smartt is Associate Professor of Law at Northeastern University London, UK and Boston, USA, and Researcher in Media and Entertainment Law at the University of Surrey.
"The depth of coverage in Ursula Smartt’s Media & Entertainment Law is striking, focussing throughout on detailed case law analysis, the media’s right to freedom of expression and the individual’s right to privacy. Her style of writing is extremely readable and yet legally accurate, as every relevant case has been studied in detail from original court reports. She brings many ‘double gagging’ orders (super injunctions) to life and illustrates how the law differs in parts of the UK by highlighting the ‘outing’ of some celebrities and sports personalities by the press north of the border, where English injunctions were not applicable in the Scottish jurisdiction."
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC
"In the past 25 years, so much expansion has taken place in legal activities potentially affecting the media, emerging quite slowly from such trigger legislation as the Human Rights Act 1998, the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 and the Data Protection Act 1998. The contents page of Ursula Smartt’s fifth edition of Media & Entertainment Law shows the sheer scale of the task for an academic author covering the modern-day spectrum of activity in this field of law. Smartt brings to the task learning as well as a dynamic and approachable style."
Adrienne Page QC, Joint Head of Chambers of 5RB
"Ursula Smartt’s book has few if any rivals and to obtain the accumulated knowledge and the analysis found within it would necessitate the buying of several books on the topics falling under the category of Media and Entertainment Law. One of the strengths of Smartt’s Media & Entertainment Law is its ability to cross academic discipline boundaries. There is in particular very good comparison of cases in international jurisdictions as well as very detailed analysis and observation about UK media law and regulation. Many academics teaching and supervising research will find this element of the book exceptionally useful. There are many useful diagrams which are always a good learning aid. The intellectual property law chapters are the most detailed and information filled chapters in what is a remarkably detailed book."
Barry Turner, Senior Lecturer in Media Law, Lincoln School of Film, Media and Journalism, University of Lincoln
