The government is reportedly on the verge of throwing its weight behind the idea of televising the sentencing of offenders in court. Read the full story

The landlord who was the victim of sustained character assassination by eight national newspapers has won his libel case, forcing the papers to apologise and pay substantial damages. Read the full story

Bahrain is threatening to sue the Independent for “deliberately publishing a series of unrealistic and provocative articles” against the Gulf state. Read the full story

Twitter will hand over private details of five UK users at the request of South Tyneside Council, which is attempting to unmask the identity of an anonymous blogger accused of libel. Read the full story

Media Digest reported last week on the story that a Premier League footballer had filed to take Twitter and “persons unknown” to court, but the weekend saw an explosion of developments that are threatening to produce a landmark case for internet privacy law in the UK. Here’s a round-up of what occurred over the weekend. Read the full story

Max Clifford has admitted that only 20 per cent of the stories he has broken during his career as a celebrity PR guru would have been allowed if newspapers were forced to justify personal stories on the grounds of public interest.

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The threat of having to pay out high damages and costs has a “chilling effect” on freedom of speech, the media is often heard complaining – but some lawyers argue it is the only effective deterrent keeping the press from running wild. Read the full story

The definition of the word twitter is “to talk lightly and rapidly, especially of trivial matters”. In 2006, when Twitter founder Jack Dorsey redefined the word in the context of the internet, he would have had little idea of the effect it would have. Today, those 140-character pieces of “trivial matter” have become a thorn in the side of the UK’s privacy laws. Read the full story