Wednesday, June 04, 2008
British news websites liable abroad for invasion of privacy
In many ways it is a surprise that it has taken this long: Mirror Group Newspapers and Associated Newspapers have been found guilty in France of invasion of privacy for stories on their respective newspaper websites about Kylie Minogue and her ex, Olivier Martinez. Martinez was awarded €4,500 per publication. Although it is in my view wholly predictable that this would happen, it does create a significant chill on media freedom in the UK: with pretty much every newspaper now publishing on-line, French privacy laws, which are notoriously stricter than the British, may well now set the standard. I don't believe this is a good thing - particularly with the Mosley cases pending in the French courts... Something to consider in the European Commission's pending review of the scope of the Rome II Convention?
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2 comments:
Considering the despicable content vendetta raged against him in UK and Aus press, I am sorry he did not sue for libel and defamation as well.All those vile names, baseless accusations, and threats ranging from torture to death because he ended a relationship.The UK and Aus press do not even know the guy nor have they ever interviewed him.There is Freedom and then there is License.
Daily Mail and Mirror are regular purveyors of untrue license and spend their lives being sued for it.
My concern is with the forum shopping that goes on: anyone aggrieved by a story can pick and sue in whichever jurisdiction he feels he's going to have the most success, regardless of whether he has any link to that jurisdiction or if the newspaper actually publishes there. This means it is completely unpredictable for a newspaper what standards to apply when they write a story, particularly if the story concerns a 'global' public figure such as Mosley - and this is of concern to publications such as the Telegraph, Times and Spectator as well as the likes of the Mirror and Daily Mail.
In the case of Martinez, the papers might have predicted that trouble would be in afoot in France, but in the case of Mosley the link with France is much more tenuous - FIA is based there but that's it. And there have been even more blatant examples of forum shopping, which in libel and defamation leads to Saudi oil princes suing in the UK and, in privacy cases, people flocking to the French courts. It's an untenable situation and in my view the courts should be much stricter in accepting jurisdiction in these kinds of cases - and here (http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/law/080604lawcolumn.shtml) is an example of such a case being thrown out as an abuse of process - or the European Commission should step in (it tried a few years ago but managed - predictably given where it comes from - to come up with a draconian 'sue anywhere in Europe' rule).
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