Cliff Richard High Court Case

Sir Cliff has won his case and has been awarded substantial damages.

Cliff Richard has won his case. Fran Unsworth and Tony Hall must be likely to be considering resignation depending on the wording of the verdict. But I can’t see the Daily Mail not stoping it’s coverage until said resignations happen.
Can see the BBC announcing very quickly that helicopters are suspended from use while a review goes on (and the press Furore).

Here’s the judgment:

https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/sir-cliff-richard-obe-v-bbc/

Sir Cliff has been awarded £190,000 general damages and £20,000 aggravated damages after the BBC nominated the story for a RTS award.

It be interesting to see if the BBC will try and appeal next week. Some in the press probably would want it because of the consequences of the aftermath - but they know their readers will want the full works in terms of Resignations must happen.
Fran Unsworth and Jonathan Munro were at the court this morning.

What sticks in the craw for me will be the sheer hypocrisy of those elsewhere in the media industry who will delight in the BBC being defeated today but don't themselves necessarily practise what they preach.

BBC News article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44871799

Personally I think the use of the helicopter for the BBC's coverage was problematic, and made the BBC's case harder. As for reporting on the raid I think any other TV/newspaper/online media outlet would have done the same (possibly even using a helicopter/drone) had they been given advanced notice of the raid by South Yorkshire Police.

I can't help thinking that James Harding quitting as head of BBC News last year was rather convenient timing, and he probably knew he might have to resign if still in charge. I feel it would be a bit harsh for Fran Unsworth if she had to resign considering she was only appointed in December, long after the incident happened. Longer term I really hope the government come up with some proper privacy laws to provide the media with guidance and avoid such incidents occurring in future.

Many people seem to hold the BBC to standards that they don't apply to other media outlets. I don't think that's fair to the BBC or to the other media outlets. Everybody should be held to the same standard.

Very much so. There was comment pieces in the Sun and I think the Mail arguing the same argument as the BBC but come tomorrow that will be forgotten.
I did notice a Sun Journalist on twitter through not being very happy with elements of the verdict.

The full judgment runs to over 120 pages, but it’s worth at least reading the opening paragraphs to see the judge’s comments on the credibility of the witnesses.

The judge had issues with the credibility of virtually all the BBC witnesses, in particular the reporter Daniel Johnson. The judge noted he gave South Yorkshire Police the impression he had a story ready to go (which facilitated their cooperation) when he didn’t.

Which probably means all of them will end up resigning.
If Tony Hall is forced out does that mean a news report on BBC1 - there was one when George Entwistle resigned.

Well that's Cliff's chances of ever being played on BBC Radio 2 ever again scuppered then!

I'd say this case has probably caused more of a dent in the news media industry circles rather than another massive public outcry to be honest. Remember that several years ago there was massive outcry about phone hacking and there was government talk of major changes to how the industry worked and that newspapers and TV news would never be the same again. I'd hardly say that's changed. Murdoch closed a paper and rearranged his assets, a couple of people were charged (even though many many more who were doing the same escaped) and newspapers agreed to clean up their act but it was hardly revolution. Going even further back, the same outcry was against press intrusion for Diana. It's hardly stopped journalists following celebrities and photographing their private lives and putting stories out judged on hearsay. Six months down the line and it will all be largely forgotten about. They'll probably be a resignation or two but I'd be surprised if this case suddenly causes a prompt for significant changes to privacy laws seeing that the phone hacking scandal didn't really do much (which in my view, was much, much worse than what has happened to Cliff).

As harsh as it seems, the whole case has felt a bit 'meh' to people I've talked about it with and people seem to be pretty ambivalent to the whole thing Any pressure on resignations will probably come from the press, rather than the public I'd say. As many have said though, will be interesting how the press play this story as it could trigger a raft of similar cases from others but they'll probably be keen to try and avoid drawing too much attention to themselves just in case.

I think the big change is likely move towards the system used in the Republic of Ireland where it's totally anonymity until conviction for certain criminal offenses but that is not a broadcasting issue so best discussed elsewhere.
Cliff has been on the BBC since the case so I can't see the BBC blacklisting him simply because if its gets noticed it's more bad headlines for them.