Reference no: EM132238459 , Length: word count:4000

Since you graduated from university with a first class honours in your LLB, you have worked as solicitor, both in Ireland and abroad. You have recently been appointed Legal Advisor to The Irish Globe, a daily broadsheet which has been established for four years. Since it started publication, The Irish Globe has provided its entire publication online, via its website IrishGlobe.ie. The website contains the entire publication archive and is fully searchable at no charge.

The website is updated on a 24 hour basis by a team of journalists who also provide online links to material referred to in The Irish Globe, where appropriate.

In your first week of work the following legal issues all land on your desk needing urgent attention.

You must identity the legal issues involved, prioritise their relative importance and provide answers for the management of The Irish Globe as soon as possible.

1. The Irish Globe has been issued with legal proceedings in defamation by Riviera, a French restaurant in Malahide. The proceedings relate to a damning restaurant review by your controversial restaurant critic Mary Maddock, who is known as ‘Mary mad dog' in the restaurant business because of her blunt and sometimes brutal reviews. The Irish Globe has heard rumours that if Riviera's action against it is successful, other restaurants will sue for defamation based on similarly negative reviews of their establishments.

2. Last week, The Irish Globe lost a defamation action against Sean Sliveen, a high profile talk show host with a nightly television programme. The case was taken over The Irish Globe's reports that Sliveen, who had always taken a right wing conservative view of homosexuals, particularly those in the "liberal media", was having an extra marital affair with a male political commentator. Last night, Sliveen died of a heart attack while at the gym. Since then, your desk has been inundated with calls and emails offering photographs which purport to prove your initial story. You are considering posting the images on your website or providing hyperlinks to their publication elsewhere, but you are also mindful of the privacy of Sliveen's bereaved wife and children.

3. The staff photographers employed by The Irish Globe are outraged by a recent decision by the publisher to market photographic products for the Valentines day market. Customers will be able to choose their favourite newspaper photographs from the last four years, which can then be digitally enhanced to include the image of the customer. The enhanced photographs will then appear on a mock up front page of The Irish Globe, which can be printed onto calendars, mugs and other gift items. The photographers have contacted their union and are threatening strike action.