Mosley v UK

Max Mosley has lost his case in the European Court of Human Rights, in which he claimed that the UK breached his right to respect for private life under article 8 of the ECHR by failing to impose a legal duty on the media to notify him in advance of a story that violated his […]

Privacy: Max Mosley is right

Max Mosley appeared before the Culture, Media and Sport Committee yesterday to talk about the exposure of his private life by the News of the World last year, his successful privacy action and the law on privacy generally. Mosley argued that newspapers should be required, before publishing stories like his, to contact the subject of […]

Charon podcast: breach of privacy and the Max Mosley judgment

Charon interviewed me this morning about the Max Mosley case. We spoke about the development from old-style breach of confidence to what’s effectively a British privacy law, with the new extended right of action for breach of privacy, and the way the courts now determine whether someone’s privacy has been breached. We spoke about the […]

The Max Mosley judgment

It’s available now thanks to the lovely BAILII. I’ve not read it yet: but I’ll post about it later today when I’ve had a chance to. From what the judge appears to have said it looks as though there’s nothing really legally new in it. That doesn’t mean it’s not important, though.

Mosley spanked out of court

Gosh, what a legal week this has been! In all the flurry, I’ve not yet posted the judgment in which Eady J refused Max Mosley an injunction against the News of the World. Paragraph 4 of the judgment describes the video at issue in the hilariously neutral terms typical of the judiciary: I was given […]

“Prior protection”: Davies and Campbell are right

Alistair Campbell blogged yesterday about his appearance and evidence to the Leveson inquiry. He had plenty to say, but I won’t repeat it – read the transcript of his evidence, and the statement he provided. What interests me especially is what he writes in that blogpost about the regime of regulation that should replace the […]

Privacy law: there’s no need for “clarification”

Following on from my post the other day about privacy and the notorious “back door”, I’m surprised Lord McNally has been taken in sufficiently to propose new privacy legislation to “clarify” the law and remove some of its dangerous and onerous aspects, to use his words. He obviously wants privacy protection watered down. I explained […]

Privacy law “through the back door”

I’m baffled by the prevalence of the belief among journalists that judges are bringing in a privacy law “by the back door”. It’s the phrase the Telegraph uses when reporting the fact that the golfer and Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie has obtained an injunction (or in newspaper language, a “gagging order”) to prevent a […]

News International and Tom Watson MP

The Culture, Media and Sport committee, inquiring into allegations about the News of the World’s hacking into people’s voicemail, is hearing evidence from its editor today; proceedings have been livened up somewhat by News International’s lawyer’s objection to Tom Watson’s participation in the inquiry. The argument is that, since he is currently suing News International, […]

Reactions to Dacre

There’s been quite a lot of blawg talk about Paul Dacre’s speech, apart from here. I’m especially interested in Simon Myerson’s good advice to would-be barristers about avoiding judge-bashing, as disrespectful of the rule of law and ultimately of democracy. Of course you can criticise judges’ legal reasoning – this blog would be in trouble […]