A Foot Anstey Lawyer Debated The Public's Right To Know On BBC1 Panorama
When does the right to know become the right to pry? The legal battle lines are being drawn up.
Privacy is one of the fastest developing areas of law. It’s grown rapidly on a diet of cases involving sex and drugs, the famous and the infamous, irate tabloid editors, glossy magazines, television reality stars and of course, eye watering legal fees to name but a few. But some believe that beneath that frothy cocktail, there’s a far more serious threat emerging.
The UK never had a privacy law but that changed in 2000 with the coming into force of the Human Rights Act. It enshrined two crucial but seemingly conflicting rights. Under article 8: the right to privacy. Under article 10: freedom of expression. The battle lines were drawn between those who wanted to protect their privacy, and those who wanted to report on it.
The new law together with existing Protection from Harassment Legislation has encouraged celebrities such as Amy Winehouse, Lilly Allen, J.K. Rowling, and Sienna Miller to take legal action against paparazzi. All have won injunctions limiting the rights of photographers to take pictures of them.
But why should ordinary people be concerned about the legal battles being fought by celebrities? Answer: The law is being used to prevent the public from finding out about serious news. As Tony Jaffa revealed in his Panorama interview, in two recent cases in which he was involved, court orders were obtained which prevented the naming of NHS Trusts which were being sued for millions of pounds following children being seriously injured at birth.
Foot Anstey solicitor Tony Jaffa commented; “It is very much in the public interest for local people to know if their local NHS trust is being accused of negligence, if it’s being sued for very substantial sums of money, and what exactly the issues arising from those cases are with a view to preventing repetition in the future.”
He added: “it is difficult to see how it can possibly be in the public interest for local newspapers to be prevented from reporting that a nearby hospital is being sued for negligence. If freedom of the press means anything, surely it means the right for the press to report on Court cases brought against local public service providers?”A powerful Commons Committee reports next month on privacy and libel before deciding whether to recommend to Parliament that the boundary between free speech and privacy should be redefined. Tony Jaffa was invited to evidence to the Committee, and as he said in his evidence to the MPs, what’s at stake is the ability of the press to keep us all informed as to what’s happening in our local communities
Published 25/06/2009.
