Page 114 - Law and the Media

New Media
. . . fully effective to protect the claimants from acts committed outside England
and Wales, resulting in information about them being placed on the Internet...

If publication on the Internet occurred, the injunction could remain in force in order to
prevent wider circulation of the published information.

Although only certain newspapers were defendants to the application, the court granted the
injunction against the whole world. The effect of the order was that any person or company
anywhere in the world publishing details about the applicants in England, including Internet
service providers based in England who hosted or made available such material, would
automatically be in contempt of court (Venables v News Group Newspapers Ltd (2001)).

In June 2001 the matter came back before the court. The Internet service provider Demon
asked the court to ‘define the parameters’ of its responsibility because the injunction covered
all the content on its servers generated anywhere in the world. The court modified the
injunction so that Internet service providers would only be in contempt if they had
knowledge of the breach but failed to take reasonable steps to prevent publication or to block
access to the information.

The modification of the order brings the responsibility of Internet services providers based
in England in line with the decision in Godfrey v Demon Internet Ltd (2000) and the
obligation imposed upon them by the E-commerce Directive. They will be responsible for
the information they carry, irrespective of the county of origin, if its unlawfulness is brought
to their attention.

4.6 Obscenity and racial hatred

Obscenity
Under the Obscene Publications Act 1959, as amended by the Criminal Justice and Public
Order Act 1994, a person who makes obscene material available for transmission or
downloads or communicates obscene material by electronic transmission commits an
offence.

It is not possible to access the Internet without an Internet service provider. As a result,
Internet service providers have been targeted by law enforcement agencies and action groups
for providing access to obscene material. For example, in Germany in 1997 the local
manager of CompuServe was prosecuted in connection with child pornography on the
Internet, which was hosted on CompuServe’s servers.

However, the Government and the European Union support self-regulation by Internet
service providers rather than the passing of specific obscenity legislation. Under Article 15
of the E-commerce Directive, Internet service providers will not be obliged to monitor the
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