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NLJ this week: Lineker-Gate & the employer’s right to veto tweets

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The dispute over football celebrity Gary Lineker’s tweets captured the public imagination and backfired spectacularly on the BBC, but what if Lineker had been an employee? In this week’s NLJ, Charles Pigott, professional support lawyer, Mills & Reeve, looks into whether employers have rights to restrict their employee’s tweets or other private expressions of opinion.

Pigott assesses the ‘weaponry’ at a worker’s disposal, covering unfair dismissal, discrimination law, victimisation, and human rights.

He writes: ‘People as prominent and popular as Gary Lineker can probably look after themselves, but our domestic law arguably provides insufficient protection for individuals to express their personal opinions on social media when these are in conflict with their employer’s interests and do not amount to the expression of protected beliefs.’ 

Read more from Pigott here.

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NEWS
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A year after the $1.5bn Bybit heist, crypto fraud is booming—but so is recovery. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Holloway, founder and CEO of M2 Recovery, warns that scams hit at least $14bn in 2025, fuelled by ‘pig butchering’ cons and AI deepfakes
After Woodcock confirmed no general duty to warn, debate turns to the criminal law. Writing in NLJ this week, Charles Davey of The Barrister Group urges revival of misprision or a modern equivalent
Family courts are tightening control of expert evidence. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Chris Pamplin says there is ‘no automatic right’ to call experts; attendance must be ‘necessary in the interests of justice’ under FPR Pt 25
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