A flight attendant in New Zealand who was dismissed for allegedly ‘pulling a sickie’ has been ordered to disclose her Facebook entries for the period. Air New Zealand claimed that the employee, Gina Kensington, had fraudulently claimed 2 days’ pay for time she said she was caring for her sister. Ms Kensington took her case to … Continue reading
A senior Tesco manager who tweeted that shutting five depots was an example of “awsome teamwork” and #worldclass has come under fire in Westminster. Distribution Director Steve Strachota sent the tweet about the re-structuring of Tesco distribution centres which will see thousands of posts transferred with some quite possibly at risk of redundancy. The depots facing closure are … Continue reading
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Kier Starmer, has now published its final guidelines stating how offensive a comment must be to justify police and prosecution time. There are already concerns that the guidance will not go far enough to prevent the growing phenomenon of online ‘trolls’. Starmer has said that prosecutors must respect and recognise freedom … Continue reading
A student who tweeted that people wearing Help for Heroes T-shirts “deserved to be beheaded” in the wake of the fatal attack on Lee Rigby in Woolwich, has narrowly avoided a jail term. The 21-year old English and politics student from Harrow had complained to Police about hundreds of threatening messages she had received … Continue reading
Research conducted by OnDevice Research has found that young people in the UK are being rejected by employers for inappropriate comments and photos posted on social media sites. The Young People’s Consumer Confidence (YPCC) Index covers 6,000 16-34 year olds across six countries in both developed and growth markets. It has been designed to help businesses … Continue reading
I was invited to Arise News to discuss the impact of social media following the attack in Woolwich earlier this week. The alleged terrorists encouraged members of the public passing by to take photos and videos of them and the immediate aftermath of the attacks. Social media has been used all over the world by … Continue reading
Sally Bercow’s infamous tweet about Lord McAlpine was libellous, Mr Justice Tugendhat has ruled in the High Court. The tweet, “Why is Lord McAlpine trending. *innocent face*.” was posted by the wife of the House of Commons Speaker, John Bercow, two days after a BBC programme linked a “leading Conservative politician” to claims of sex abuse at … Continue reading
PODCAST: Kevin Poulter and Alex Aldridge discuss blogging with Leon Glenister As Hardwicke Building found out last week, lawyers who enjoy writing in their free time can sometimes cause problems. But, on balance, most barristers’ chambers and law firms look favourably on applicants with a few bylines to their name – and as the Barbara … Continue reading
I spoke on Arise global news on 18 April 2013 on the increasing use of information taken from social media sites by the broadcast media. The interview followed news that CNN and other agencies falsely reported that an arrest had been made in the 24 hours following the Boston bombings. View the segment below: Continue reading
A poll of 1,200 office workers has found that half of employees never consider the risks presented to companies by downloading data to their office computers or smartphones. In the survey carried out by IT staffing provider Modis, 40 per cent of those surveyed said they were not aware of their employers IT security policies. … Continue reading
Kevin Poulter 