Respecting Reporting Restrictions: The Case Of Walt Disney & Brand Republic

In early-mid 2009, the whole of the United Kingdom was buzzing with reports covering the Alfie Patten case.

Alfie Patten was dubbed the youngest father in Britain at just age 13.

However, subsequent DNA testing proved that this was not the case and that a 14-year old was the father of the child purported to be Alfie’s.

While the case was prominent in its moral and cultural implications, it had another side worth looking back at.

And that side involves how even legal reporting restrictions can be easily overlooked in the age of the internet.

But, surprisingly, even major media players Walt Disney and Brand Republic were found in breach of court orders related to the reporting of the case.

When the court order was in place, there were reports (with screenshot evidence) showing both of them continuing to report details of the case.

However, while this was damaging to the authority and reputation of the judicial system, courts should be stricter in implementing such orders.

That’s because, in the context of reporting restrictions, there’s the apparent loophole of persons and entities being bound by the order only if they “know” the order has been made.

This condition makes it so easy to get away with ignoring reporting restrictions by feigning ignorance.

And while big companies are likely to come around and fix their mistakes (as Walt Disney did shortly afterwards), things are much faster and looser in the blogosphere.

Implementation needs a second layer beyond all media (primarily digital) being communicated through an order.

The contents of the orders should also be released with sufficient clarity that one wouldn’t require legal counsel to understand them.

Another disturbing layer to the court order breach situation was how Google News kept covering the story.

Google News continued to show headlines from sources outside the UK sources, pointing towards the DNA test results.

And the food for thought here is that if Google News can’t be regulated, what’s the hope that small-time bloggers can be controlled in any meaningful way?