European court ends Mosley privacy battle
By Ian Dunt
Max Mosley’s long-running privacy battle hit what appeared to be a brick wall today when a European court rejected his legal challenge.
The former F1 boss wants to force newspapers to warn people that they were about to feature before publication, giving them time to file an injunction.
But the European court of human rights in Strasbourg said any such move would have a “freezing effect” on press freedom.
Mr Mosley’s campaign started when the News of the World printed a front page story about a meeting he had with five prostitutes, complete with photos and extensive coverage.
The UK high court found that the story could not be justified and awarded Mr Mosley £60,000 damages.
That judgement was supported by the European court, which said the use of photos and video served “merely to titillate the public and increase the embarrassment of the applicant”.
But the court insisted that particulars of the case had no bearing on the broader impact of consolidating the need for a pre-notification hearing.
Most media outlets inform an individual mentioned in a story that they will appear and give them right to reply but it is not enshrined in law and it does not appear in the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) code. It is considered best practise, however.
Human rights groups were especially wary of any change in the law, fearing that it could force them to inform dictators of any reports they were publishing on them or their government.
But Mr Mosley’s lawyers said the failure to notify the subjects of news reports detailing their private lives violated the European human rights convention.
The court took a different view, saying: “The court is of the view that article eight does not require a legally binding pre-notification requirement. Accordingly, the court concludes that there has been no violation of article eight of the convention by the absence of such a requirement in domestic law.”
