English heritage Flashcards
Magna Carta
established the right to equality under the law and guaranteed due process under the law (didn’t enforce free speech)
seditious libel
- Star Chamber (1542-1641)
Star Chamber- established to deal with sedition- found people and tortured them in secret for it.
private libel
Defamation, communicated to another person, truth is ok as defense.
blasphemous libel
Criticism and words against the church.
obscene libel
- Thomas Bowdler; bowdlerize
- Regina v. Hicklin (1868); “Hicklin Rule”
Bowdler- tried to eliminate naughty parts of texts.
Hicklin - established the definition of obscenity- “whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences”
licensing
Control of media, who can say it.
1557 Copyright Law (Bloody Mary)
“ownership of copy” a way of operating prior restraint because she only licensed one paper to publish, all others were outlawed.
Statute of Anne (1710)
says copy-write lies with the author rather then the publisher- also established copy-write as only for a limited amount of time and would eventually become public domain.
Stationers Company
The Stationers were lawfully provided with the power to seize “offending books” that violated the standard rules of the Church and State; the offenders were taken before religious authorities
- 4 procedures replaced Star Chamber
Four procedures
1- General warrant issued requiring only suspicion
2- Gray jury bypassed so they may go straight to trial
3-Truth is rejected as a defense since it can sometimes be more damaging.
4-Jury restricted to fact of publication, , they can only decide wether or not the person actually said it, not if it is seditious.
Fox’s Libel Act (1792)
Jury can now decide if content is seditious
