Privacy Update

Two court decisions this summer have thrown further light on the development of the law of privacy. Naomi Campbell finally prevailed over the Mirror in the House of Lords. It was a bad day for the tabloids. Then the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled in favour of Princess Caroline of Monaco.

The Campbell case has been well documented and is rightly seen as an advance, albeit by the backdoor, in our law on privacy. It recognises that we have indeed imported a human rights based privacy law from Europe. The Princess Caroline case concerned photos of her shopping, skiing, eating out and picking up her children from school. So a case about photos taken in France, published in Germany, concerning a Monegasque princess found its way into a court case in Strasbourg, presided over by a multi-national panel of human rights judges. Balancing privacy against press freedom, the judges decided that the photos did not contribute to a debate of general interest because they related solely to Princess Caroline’s private life.

This European view of what the public has a right to know and see is more restricted than what we have been used to in this country. It may prove to be an influential decision in the UK. Our Press Complaints Commission judges the legitimacy of unauthorised photos according to a different set of rules – slightly more favourable to the paparazzi.The Strasbourg ruling may make life more difficult for them. So for the time being after an intrusive unauthorised photograph is published it may be easier to obtain a court remedy, relying on the recent Strasbourg interpretation of human rights law, than on PCC ruling. As with any invasion of privacy, deciding how to respond depends on the prevailing legal climate and this is a rapidly developing area of law.

For further assistance please contact:

Tony Morton-Hooper
Tel +44 (0)20 7440 7030
tonymh@mishcon.com