Page 237 - Law and the Media

Law and the Media
In other words, in order to obtain an interim injunction, a claimant will now have to show
that:

The information is confidential
There is unlikely to be any ‘public interest’ defence, and
The injunction sought is in clearly defined terms that provide the minimum
restrictions compatible with protection of the confidence.

12.5 Invasion of privacy

The coming into force of the Human Rights Act 1998 has meant that the English courts have
further developed the doctrine of ‘breach of confidence’ towards a full blown tort of
‘invasion of privacy’ (see Chapter 8).

When considering whether to grant an injunction to restrain the publication of ‘private’
information, the court will take into account relevant privacy codes such as that of the Press
Complaints Commission (see Chapter 17) (Douglas v Hello! (2001)).

Interim injunctions have been granted to restrain the publication of ‘private information’
concerning the claimant in a number of cases, for example:

An injunction to restrain the publication of information that might lead to the
identification of the two young men convicted of the murder of James Bulger
(Venables v News Group Newspapers Ltd (2001))
An injunction to restrain the publication of the fact and detail of adulterous affairs
(A v B and C (2001)).

On the other hand, the court will take into account the likelihood of harm to the claimant and
whether he can be compensated in damages. An injunction was refused where an exclusive
agreement made between Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones and a magazine to
publish photographs of their wedding was breached when another magazine published them
(Douglas v Hello! (2001)).

It now seems likely that a claimant will be able to restrain the publication of information
about his or her private life by the media unless:

The information is trivial or is already in the public domain, and/or
There is a clear public interest in publication involving, for example, the detection
or exposure of crimes or misdemeanours, protection of public health and safety and
preventing the public from being misled (see the Press Complaints Commission
Code, paragraph 3), and/or
The claimant can clearly be compensated in damages because, for example, he is
prepared to sell the relevant information about his private life, as was the case in
Douglas v Hello!
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