The Right to Privacy and Continuous Overstepping by the Press

Abstract

The right to privacy has been incorporated in the UK through Human Rights Act 1998 which is in consonance with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). However, since the UK does not have a statutory law that explicitly deals with right to privacy, the judiciary had to be involved in several cases to interpret the laws of privacy and the role of Press in terms of expression. Disputes about whether the Press is overstepping have plagued the English legal landscape for several years and the question still remains whether privacy laws can give rise to an independent tort of privacy. The first instance of a legislation that limited what the Press could write was the Judicial Proceedings (regulation of reports) Act 1926. However, it was not until passing of the Human Rights Act (HRA) in 1988 that finally led to privacy rights in the UK. The HRA was a big step towards protection of human rights and privacy rights of individuals in the UK.

Today, there has been huge number of incidents where the Press has overstepped and published personal information for the sake of news. In Von Hannover v Germany6, the European Court of Justice held that photographs that depicted Princess Caroline in her day-to-day activities were purely private and were not open for publication. Privacy laws in the UK and the freedom of speech enjoyed by the Press was called into question in 2008 with the Max Mosley7 judgment and thereafter movie actress Sienna Miller also fought a legal battle against News International for breach of her privacy.8 However, in spite of such actions by the Press, there has been no real legislation incorporated by the government to protect the privacy rights of individuals. There is clearly a need for legislation to settle such disputes and frame clear regulations that demarcate between freedom of expression and privacy rights. The privacy rights in UK need to be strengthened to provide better protection and rights to the individuals. The Press has continuously overtaken the rights of individuals and invaded in private lives which need to be stopped by the government by enacting legislations that clearly protect right to privacy. Having independent bodies that regulate the Press cannot be considered as a way to protect the rights of individuals and balance it with the freedom of expression enjoyed by the Press. There has to be a clear demarcation between the two rights.

Keywords: privacy rights, right to privacy, freedom of press in UK, Judicial Proceedings (regulation of reports) Act 1926, Human Rights Act (HRA), Human Rights Act 1998, Press Complaints Commission (PCC)