Media Freedom in a Digital Age

Members of the Centre welcome and there will be opportunities for questions and discussion from the audience.

Purposes

Establishing the parameters of the project, its fundamental themes, aims, and scope.

Reflections on potential originality & significance.

Presenters will present on their topic for 10 mins allowing for time for discussions of different aspects that should be emphasised and are touched on by other authors and also comments from the audience.

A key aim of the conference is to find synergies between papers.

12 noon: Light lunch for speakers:

Coffee and sandwiches

12.20-12.25pm Welcome from Fiona Brimblecombe

Part I: Doctrinal/ theoretical foundations

• 12.25-12.35pm Peter Coe: Freedom of the media and of expression in the online environment (10 minutes)

• 12.35-12.50pm: Paul Wragg: Media regulation in a digital age (10 minutes)

• 12.50-1.20pm: discussion of overlaps, links, synergies, other ideas with speakers and the audience.

Part II: Privacy and data protection; future reforms?

• 1.20-1.30pm: Jeevan Hariharan, Misuse of Private Information on the internet: the problem of protecting private information online (10 minutes)

• 1.30-1.40pm: David Erdos, Online freedom of expression and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (10 mins)

• 1.40-2.10pm discussion of overlaps, links, synergies, other ideas with speakers and the audience.

• 2.10-2.20pm: Fiona Brimblecombe, The rise of ‘citizen journalism’ on the internet and its intersection with the public interest defence to defamation (10 mins)

• 2.20.2.35pm: discussion of overlaps, links, synergies, other ideas with speakers and the audience.

2.35-2.45pm: Coffee Break

Part III: Platform regulation and online harms

• 2.45-2.55pm: Helen Fenwick, The Online Safety Act 2023: providing a global model for protection of children online? (10 mins)

• 2.55-3.05pm: Rebecca Moosavian, The rise of ‘deepfakes’ (10 mins)

• 3.05-3.35pm: discussion of overlaps, links, synergies, other ideas with speakers and the audience.

• 3.35-3.45pm: Gavin Phillipson, Hate speech and offensive expression online: methods of regulatory practice (10 mins)

• 3.45-3.55pm: Paul Bernal: Combating the spread of false information on social media and the internet (10 mins)

• 3.55-4.25pm: discussion of overlaps, links, synergies, other ideas with speakers and the audience.

• 4.25-5.00pm: Conclusions: discussion of key themes, overlaps, new ideas and directions that have arisen out of the day chaired by Helen Fenwick (open discussion relating to full work)

5.00-5.30pm: Book launch/introduction:

Defamation in the Digital Age and the ‘right to be forgotten’ (Bristol University Press, 2025), Fiona Brimblecombe

5.30pm: Drinks reception with nibbles.

7.00pm: Self-funded Conference dinner at Fiik restaurant in Durham.