Research Interests

  • The impact of citizen journalism, and the internet and social media, on free speech, media freedom/regulation and intermediary liability
  • Defamation and the protection of corporate reputation
  • Media power and plurality, the role the media plays within society and its impact on democracy.

My research interests fall within the broad field of Media Law. A primary theme within my research agenda is the changing nature of journalism, and what this means, both normatively and theoretically, for free speech, press freedom and regulation. I am particularly interested in how the development of the internet, and the ascendency of social media platforms, have altered the press industry and our media and communication ecology more broadly, and how this has led to significant transformative effects on the public sphere by changing the way we generate, publish, and consume information, and how we engage in public discourse generally. My work in this area has led to me working with Impress, which is the Press Recognition Panel approved regulator of the UK press, and the Information Commissioner’s Office, on the development of their respective journalism codes. Upon invitation from the International Academy of Comparative Law and British Association of Comparative Law, I served as the UK’s National Rapporteur on Freedom of Speech and the Regulation of Fake News during 2021-2022.

A separate, albeit related, strand to my research agenda is defamation law and reputation, and more specifically, the protection of corporate reputation. My work on corporate reputation has been published in leading journals, including Legal Studies and the Journal of Business Law. Aspects of this research were cited by the Scottish Law Commission in its Discussion Paper on Defamation, ultimately informing its recommendations to continue allowing bodies trading for profit to sue in defamation.

A combination of this research led to my appointment by the Council of Europe as the UK’s independent member of the Council’s Expert Committee on Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation. I have subsequently given expert evidence to the UK Government Justice Select Committee on SLAPPs and I have advised and worked with the Ministry of Justice, charities, NGOs and other organisations on various reform proposals relating to this type of litigation.

Additional Information

I joined Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham in 2022 as an Associate Professor. Prior to this I was a Lecturer in Law, and then an Associate Professor in Law, at the School of Law, University of Reading, where I served as the Deputy Research Division Leader, the School of Law’s Research Communications Lead, and the Co-Chair of the Law, Justice and Society Research Group. I still work closely with my former Reading colleagues as a Senior Visiting Research Fellow. 

I have also held a Senior Lectureship in Law at Aston University, where I undertook several academic management and administrative positions relating to research and teaching, including the LLB Course Directorship, and managing the Law School's employability initiatives. 

Additionally, I have practised as a barrister, having been Called to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn in 2007 as a Lord Denning Scholar and Hardwicke Entrance Scholar. He remains an Associate Academic Member of East Anglian Chambers. 

My primary research interests are: (i) the changing nature of journalism, and how this impacts on free speech, press freedom and regulation, and the concepts of privacy and reputation; (ii) defamation, including the protection of corporate reputation; and (iii) media power and plurality, the role the media plays within society and its impact on democracy. My work in these areas has been published in leading journals such as Legal Studies, the University of Melbourne's Media & Arts Law Review, the Journal of Media Law, the Journal of Business Law, and Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, amongst others, and my monograph, Media Freedom in the Age of Citizen Journalism, was published by Edward Elgar Publishing in 2021. I am the co-editor, with Professor Paul Wragg, of Landmark Cases in Privacy Law, which was published by Hart in 2023.

My research has led to several external appointments. For example, in 2024 I will take up a Distinguished Research Fellowship at the Institute of Advanced Study at Durham University. In 2022 I was appointed by the Council of Europe as the UK’s independent member of the Council’s Expert Committee on Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation. I was subsequently called to give expert evidence to the UK Government Justice Select Committee on SLAPPs and I have advised and worked with the Ministry of Justice, charities, NGOs and other organisations on various reform proposals relating to this type of litigation. In the same year, I was appointed as a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Law, University of Reading, and in 2021 I was invited to join the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and Information Law and Policy Centre as an Associate Research Fellow, having been a Research Associate at the ILPC since 2018. My work on citizen journalism, press freedom and regulation led to me helping to set up, and then lead, an Impress Advisory Group to provide expert guidance to the press regulator on the creation and operation of a new regulatory scheme. I was subsequently asked to join the Impress Code Committee to support its review of its Standards Code for journalists, and between October 2021 and January 2022 he was engaged by Impress to draft its new Standards Code and Guidance. I have also advised the Information Commissioner’s Office on the development of its draft journalism code of practice. During 2021-2022, upon invitation from the International Academy of Comparative Law and British Association of Comparative Law, I served as the United Kingdom’s National Rapporteur on Freedom of Speech and the Regulation of Fake News.

Since 2019 I have been the Editor of Communications Law, one of the leading specialist journals devoted to media and technology law. I also sit on the International Editorial Boards of In Medias Res and the International Journal of Communication and New Technologies Law. From 2017 to 2020 I was a member of the Executive Committee of the Society of Legal Scholars, and from 2020 to 2023 I was the Convenor of the Society’s Media and Communications Law subject section.

Publications

Books

Coe, P. and Wragg, P. (eds), (2023) Landmark Cases in Privacy Law, Hart Publishing 

Coe, P. (2023) ‘Press regulation in the United Kingdom in a changed media ecosystem’ in Wragg P and Koltay A (eds), Global Perspectives on Press Regulation: Volume 1, Europe. vol. 1, Hart, 2023

Coe, P (2023), ‘Freedom of Speech and the Regulation of Fake News in the United Kingdom’ in Pollicino O and Di Gregorio G (eds), Freedom of Speech and the Regulation of Fake News. 1 edn, Ius Comparatum - Global Studies in Comparative Law, Intersentia, 2023 

Coe, P. (2021) Media Freedom in the Age of Citizen Journalism, Edward Elgar Publishing 

Coe, P. (2020) ‘A comparative analysis of the treatment of corporate reputation in Australia and the UK’. In: Wragg, P. and Koltay, A. (eds.) Research Handbook on Comparative Privacy & Defamation Law. Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 253-269

Coe, P. (2017) ‘National security and the fourth estate in a brave new social media world’. In: Scaife, L. (ed.) Social Networks as the New Frontier of Terrorism: #Terror. Routledge, pp. 165-192

Articles

Coe, P (2023), 'FGX v Stuart Gaunt: ‘Assessing damages for intentional infliction of harm, misuse of private information and breach of confidence in ‘image-based abuse’ claims', Journal of Professional Negligence 39(3), 137-141

Coe, P. (2022) ‘The Draft Online Safety Bill and the regulation of online harms and hate speech: have we opened Pandora’s Box?’ Journal of Media Law
https://doi.org/10.1080/17577632.2022.2083870 

Coe, P. (2021) ‘An analysis of three distinct approaches to using defamation law to protect corporate reputation from Australia, England and Wales, and Canada’ Legal Studies, 41 (1) 111-129

Coe, P. and Brown, J. (2020) ‘What's in a name? The case for protecting the reputation of businesses under Article 1 Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights’. Journal of European Tort Law, 10 (3). pp. 286-315

Coe, P. (2018) ‘(Re)embracing social responsibility theory as a basis for free speech: shifting the normative paradigm for a modern media’. Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, 69 (4). pp. 403-431

Coe, P. (2018) ‘Anonymity and pseudonymity: Free speech’s problem children’. Media & Arts Law Review, 22 (2). pp. 173-200

Coe, P. (2017) ‘Redefining 'media' using a 'media-as-a-constitutional-component' concept: An evaluation of the need for the European Court of Human Rights to alter its understanding of 'media' within a new media landscape’. Legal Studies, 37 (1). pp. 25-53

Coe, P. (2015) ‘The Defamation Act 2013: We need to talk about Corporate Reputation’. Journal of Business Law (4). pp. 313-334

Coe, P. (2015) ‘The social media paradox: an intersection with freedom of expression and the criminal law’. Information and Communications Technology Law, 24 (1). pp. 16-40

Coe, P (2015) 'Footballers and Social Media 'Faux Pas': The Football Association's Cash Cow?' Entertainment Law Review, 26(3), pp. 75-78

Coe, P (2014) 'The Defamation Act 2013 and CPR 3.4 and 24: A sting in causation's tail' Entertainment Law Review 25 (3), pp. 93-96

Coe, P. (2013) ‘The value of corporate reputation and the Defamation Act 2013: a brave new world or road to ruin?’ Communications Law, 18 (4). pp. 113-121