cearta.ie – Page 66 – the Irish for rights

In March, I blogged about the dubious legality of the second Employment Control Framework, which the outgoing government had introduced to control employment in the third level sector. It was misguided and controversial (eg, Liam Delaney here, and here | Dermot Frost | Bernie Goldbach | Aidan Kane | Stephen Kinsella | Rob Kitchen | James McInerney | Donncha O’Connell | Stefano Sanvito | Ferdinand von Prondzynski, passim, but esp here, here, and here). After some discord and delay, that framework has now, it seems, been greatly revised to resolve many of the contentious issues (see Revised ECF 2011-2014 June 2011 (pdf)).

Tom Boland, Chief Executive of the Higher Education Authority, said that the revised Framework “provides reasonable flexibility to the higher education institutions to manage their staffing requirements”; and the public response has been largely positive. For example, in today’s Irish Independent Katherine Donnelly writes that Ministers softened their approach after an outcry from colleges about ‘Soviet-style’ controls, which greeted the original proposals published earlier this year. Again, in today’s Irish Times, Sean Flynn points out that the revised framework removes the onus on colleges to notify the Higher Education Authority of appointments which are funded from external sources, and gives colleges additional flexibility on promotional posts.…

Today is World Press Freedom Day

3 May, 20117 November, 2012

| 2 Comments

| Conferences, Lectures, Papers and Workshops, Freedom of Expression

Today is World Press Freedom Day (Unesco | IFEX | WPFD 2011 | WAN-IFRA), and there will be many events worldwide to celebrate, defend and promote press freedom. Free media are at the heart of freedom of expression, acting as watchdogs on governments, exposing corruption and rights abuses, and holding the powerful to account.

Piaras Kelly has news of an event today in Dublin marking World Press Freedom Day (with links by me):

Lal Wickrematunge’s brother, Lasantha, has been named as a “Hero of Press Freedom” by the International Press Institute following his murder by unknown assailants in 2009 when he was managing editor of The Sunday Leader, a Sri Lankan newspaper.

The Press Council of Ireland, in association with Ireland Aid, has arranged a free public lecture by Lal Wickrematunge to mark World Press Freedom Day on Tuesday 3 May 2011.

The lecture will take place between 2.30 pm – 4.00 pm in the Neil Hoey Lecture Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub, Fellows Square, Trinity College Dublin. If you would like to attend please RSVP to info@presscouncil.ie or (01) 6489130.

In unfortunate timing, some of my students have an exam at exactly the same time, so I can’t attend.…

Taxing and woolly data retention laws will discourage new business – The Irish Times – Fri, Apr 15, 2011

15 April, 2011

| No Comments

| data retention, General

KARLIN LILLINGTON

The cost and complexity of new data legislation creates difficulties for new investors

AS THE implications of our recently enacted data retention legislation sink in, internet service providers – defined broadly – are beginning to express concern.

The Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011, signed into law in January, does not merely target telecoms companies or conventional ISPs, say legal experts. Operators of cyber cafes, and any hotel or hostel that offers internet access to customers, are likely to fall under its remit.

Handlers of internet and e-mail data – including those who operate data warehouses – may now have obligations to store user data under this Act. Even people who run internet discussion boards fall into a grey area, depending on how they manage e-mail services for board members.

Data handlers must not only store, but maintain and manage data in such a way as to make it quickly accessible to law-enforcement agencies upon request and – in a move that has been questioned by privacy advocates such as Digital Rights Ireland – the Revenue service.

Doing so will generally involve software, employee and hardware costs. These could prove crippling to smaller service providers and cause hotels to question whether to offer internet access at all.

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CommBank’s ‘heavy-handed’ tactics after ATM glitch: police called in

15 April, 2011

| No Comments

| General, Restitution

CommBank’s ‘heavy-handed’ tactics after ATM glitch: police called in

Asher Moses

April 15, 2011 – 3:45PM

Comments 123

The Commonwealth Bank is referring about 100 of its customers to police for criminal prosecution as a result of the recent ATM glitch that allowed people to overdraw their accounts, the head of the NSW Police fraud squad says.

Meanwhile, in Victoria, police confirmed that the bank referred two customers for investigation, who had been summonsed to appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court on May 13 charged with theft.

The revelations come after the bank was accused in a report on ABC radio’s AM program this morning of using “unfair and heavy-handed tactics” when trying to recover the funds that were overdrawn from accounts last month after the bank deliberately took its ATMs offline following a database maintenance glitch.

The bank, which announced a $3 billion profit for the half year ended December 31, 2010, has written to customers – including welfare recipients – threatening them with legal action if they do not repay the money in full and has also closed accounts without notice.

via smh.com.au

And here’s another story from the SMH about the issue. This is a sequel to the story blogged by Legal Eagle on Skepticlawyer, noted here, similar to an Irish story before Christmas, blogged here.

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San Rafael artist riled after nude painting removed from Marin Civic Center gallery – San Jose Mercury News

15 April, 2011

| No Comments

| Censorship, General

San Rafael artist riled after nude painting removed from Marin Civic Center gallery

By Nels Johnson
Marin Independent Journal

Posted: 04/12/2011 07:19:16 AM PDT

Updated: 04/12/2011 11:30:05 AM PDT

Click photo to enlarge

Artist Silvia Cossich Goodman at the Marin Civic Center, April 11, 2011, in San… (Robert Tong)

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San Rafael artist Silvia Cossich Goodman is up in arms because her painting of a nude was ejected from a Civic Center art exhibition because it offended a county employee.

“Apparently one person working at the Civic Center is so upset about my nude painting that she went straight to human resources and made a big stir to have my painting removed,” Goodman said, decrying “censorship at the Civic Center.”

Mona Miyasato, chief assistant county administrator, noting that art is in the eye of the beholder, said an employee who was offended complained after the exhibit went up last week “about being accosted by the painting every day in the work environment” because her office was near the first-floor gallery.

Because “employees must not feel we’ve created a hostile work environment,” the artist was asked to pick up the painting, Miyasato said.

via mercurynews.com

13 April

14 April, 20117 November, 2012

| No Comments

| General

On yesterday’s date, 13 April, Handel’s Messiah had its world premiere in Neal’s Music Hall on Fishamble Street in Dublin in 1742. Weather permitting, Our Lady’s Choral Society now annually perform Messiah on Fishamble Street on this date. For example, see this wonderful slide show on the Irish Times site of last year’s performance by Our Lady’s Choral Society and the National Sinfonia conducted by Proinnsías Ó Duinn, and there is far more coverage on the choir’s website. The Irish Times slides are accompanied by a soundtrack of their performance of the second half of the Hallelujah Chorus (from “and He shall reign”, rather than the better-known first half – their full recording of Messiah can be purchased here). Here are reports from the Irish Times of yesterday’s performance, and here is a wonderful flash-mob performance of the Hallelujah chorus in full, performed by the UCC Campus Chorus in Áras na Mac Léinn, UCC.

On the same date, the year after Messiah‘s premiere, Thomas Jefferson was born; in 1829, the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 (10 Geo IV c.7) received Royal Assent; in 1900, Thomas Butts, inventor of scrabble, was born; in 1939, Seamus Heaney, Nobel Prize-winning poet, was born; and in 1963, Garry Kasparov, world chess champion turned politican, was born.…

Is the Press Council system working?

13 April, 20113 October, 2023

| 2 Comments

| Defamation Act 2009, Defamation Bill 2006, Press Council

With the recent publication by the Press Council and the Office of the Press Ombudsman of their Annual Report 2010 (Report (pdf) | Press Release), it is an opportune time to consider whether the system of press self-regulation by those two bodies is working. I think that, overall, the answer must be yes. Within the remit afforded to the Ombudsman and Press Council, they are working very well indeed. The Ombudsman and Council are energetic in spreading the word about the speedy form of redress which they operate; the growing numbers of member-periodicals show that the industry has embraced the system; and the numbers of complaints show that an increasingly-aware public are taking advantage of it. Apart from the figures, 2010 saw two very important developments: the recogition of the Ombudsman and Council pursuant to the Defamation Act, 2009 (also here); and the extension of their remit to purely online publications.

As the Council’s new Chairman, Dáithí O’Ceallaigh, notes in his Introduction to the Report, the year covered by the Report began with the coming into force of the Defamation Act, 2009, section 44 and Schedule 2 of which allowed for the formal recognition of the Press Council, which duly followed in April:

This has been no mere formality, but a significant and public recognition of the degree to which these new structures, since their institution in 2007, have met the exacting requirements laid down for recognition in the Act, and have contributed to the climate of enhanced accountability and public service within which our press industry operates.

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Impending changes to legal education

11 April, 20117 November, 2012

| 4 Comments

| Competition Law, Legal Services Regulation

Stethescope and gavel While Portugal and Iceland garner headlines for their international financial woes, Ireland is getting on with implementing the terms of last November’s EU IMF Programme of Financial Support for Ireland. For readers of this blog, one very important element of that programme requires the removal of restrictions to competition in sheltered sectors, such as the legal and medical professions. In particular, the Programme recommends the implementation of the 2005 Report (pdf) of the Legal Costs Working Group and of the Competition Authority‘s 2006 Reports on regulated professions, including their Report on the Legal Professions. Unsurprisingly, the Bar Council professed itself unhappy with the IMF proposals; but, in my view, the implementation of these recommendations can change the Irish legal system for the better.

In January of this year, the Public Accounts Committee published their Third Interim Report on the Procurement of Legal Services by Public Bodies (pdf). Starting from the premise that public bodies procure huge amounts of legal services every year, the Report concluded that the ability to get value for money is restricted by the practices of the legal profession. Indeed, the Committee was very concerned that the two Reports mentioned above had not been implemented:

The Committee notes the restrictive practices that are keeping legal fees artificially high.

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