Case could extend celebs’ privacy rights
Posted by
Martin Stabe
on 17 February 2006 at 14:13
Tags: Privacy
The Telegraph today highlights a little-reported legal case that could have major implications for journalists.
Canadian folk singer Loreena McKennitt went to the High Court in London last November to block publication of an unauthorised autobiography written by a former friend and employee, Niema Ash. Legal editor Joshua Rozenberg writes:
The entire hearing took place behind closed doors and so the judgment attracted little interest when it came out just before Christmas.
Since then, lawyers have been poring over Mr Justice Eady’s judgment, advising celebrities that they now have a better chance of protecting their private lives while warning media clients about the ruling’s chilling effect on free speech.
The case applies the 2004 European Court of Human Rights ruling in favour of Princess Caroline of Monaco, in which the judges held that publication of paparazzo photographs of her on holiday had breached of her right to privacy. But Mr Justice Eady has ruled that the application of that ruling is “not confined to information in photographic form”.
Tags: Privacy
