The Cliff Richard ruling is a chilling blow to press freedom | Roy Greenslade

This sets a precedent whereby a celebrity’s right to privacy trumps the public’s right to know. The BBC has to appeal

At the risk of a tasteless pun, it is reasonable to argue that the BBC’s use of a helicopter to report the police raid on Sir Cliff Richard’s house was over the top. Strangely, however, that was not the view of Mr Justice Mann, in his landmark ruling that the corporation’s journalists had seriously infringed Richard’s privacy. Despite referring to the coverage as “sensationalist”, the worrying fact is that the judge did not award Richard £210,000 damages because of the corporation’s extraordinary decision to employ a helicopter. He did so on the basis that naming the singer was itself unlawful. As far as he was concerned, the methodology used to obtain the story was irrelevant.

In so doing, he has created a precedent with worrying implications for press freedom. It suggests that reporting the identity of anyone whose home is raided, or who is known to be under police investigation prior to being arrested or charged, amounts to an intrusion into their privacy. It means that Mann has broken new legal ground by rebalancing the two articles in the European convention on human rights that deal with respect for private life and freedom of expression. He has decided that article 8, the right to privacy, now trumps article 10, the public’s right to know.

Critics of journalism will doubtless take heart from the ruling in the belief that the public’s right to know is merely an excuse for the publication and broadcasting of information to excite prurience. But to do the opposite – to seal off police investigations, including house raids, from public scrutiny – takes us down a dark road. How are police to be held accountable for their actions unless we reveal what they have done and are doing?

There are several aspects to the Richard case that demand a rethink, which may well occur because I am given to understand that the BBC will, quite rightly, launch an appeal against this judgment. Although a section of the press remains antipathetic to Britain’s public service broadcaster, newspaper editors would do well to support an appeal because it is in their interests, and those of their readers, to ensure the ruling does not stand.

In a sense, this amounts to judge-made law. As the BBC’s counsel, Gavin Millar QC, observed in court, parliament has never previously thought it necessary to prevent the reporting of police actions, including the execution of search warrants. The press, he said, has been “free to report on such matters without any form of legislative restraint”. Therefore, Mann has stepped into new territory on this issue and in so doing has failed to take account of the realities of the modern, digital world. He suggested that it would have been fine for the BBC to show footage of the police entering and searching Richard’s property, but not to identify him as the owner and the subject of the investigation. Yet neighbours, passers-by and other people living in the vicinity would know his identity. Would all of them be able to hold back from posting hints on social media?

There is less secrecy in our society nowadays than at any time in history. To imagine that police could raid the home of a high-profile person and that people would walk on by and button their lips is unimaginable. The inevitable result would be the retailing of the kind of gossip and innuendo that the judge seems to believe can be stamped out by gagging the mainstream media.

Down the years, editors who discovered that someone was under investigation by the police always had to decide whether there was a public interest justification to publish. Now the bar has been raised to an alarming height. And the more famous a person is, the more difficult it will be to make that decision because, as is obvious, famous people have a greater need than the ordinary citizen to protect their public reputation. Yet, of course, it is the famous who will seek to benefit from avoiding the spotlight.

One of the most positive features of the investigations into cases of historical sexual crimes was the way in which publicity led to victims coming forward. That was undoubtedly in the wider public interest. Any restriction on the press will inhibit justice.

Note also the size of the award made to Richard. It is far greater than the previous highest award in a privacy action – the £60,000 granted to Max Mosley in 2008 when the now-defunct News of the World splashed his sexual antics over its front page and ran intimate video footage on its website. Indeed, it is greater than most awards for defamation, implying that privacy has replaced libel as the go-to legal tool to frustrate legitimate media inquiries. Should this judgment be allowed to stand, the likely effect is a chilling of press freedom.

It also takes Britain still further away from the freedoms enjoyed by journalists in the United States due to the first amendment. That is significant because people who use social media are getting used to enjoying the American model of freedom of speech regardless of British restrictions. This judgment will therefore be viewed by them as unduly regressive.

• Roy Greenslade is professor of journalism at City University and a Guardian columnist

Contributor

Roy Greenslade

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

Article image
Cliff Richard and freedom of the press | Letters
Letters: Readers respond after Cliff Richard wins £210,000 in damages over BBC privacy case

Letters

20, Jul, 2018 @4:27 PM

Article image
The Guardian view on Cliff Richard’s court victory: a threat to journalism | Editorial
Editorial: Privacy matters, but the media must not be stopped from naming those suspected of serious crimes

Editorial

18, Jul, 2018 @5:54 PM

Article image
Media experts alarmed at consequences of Cliff Richard ruling
Privacy ruling could have substantial impact on future media coverage of criminal cases

Jim Waterson Media editor

18, Jul, 2018 @6:52 PM

Article image
The Guardian view on privacy law and press freedom: failing to strike a balance | Editorial
Editorial: The supreme court’s ruling against Bloomberg News in a landmark case is a threat to legitimate investigative reporting

Editorial

18, Feb, 2022 @6:25 PM

Article image
After Cliff Richard, what price privacy and the public’s right to know? | Alan Rusbridger
Mr Justice Mann’s judgment was more nuanced than some of his critics allowed

Alan Rusbridger

22, Jul, 2018 @5:00 AM

Article image
Cliff Richard v BBC has set a terrible precedent – the media must fight back
The verdict is perhaps even more disastrous given that historical sex abuse thrives in secrecy

Jane Martinson

22, Jul, 2018 @1:00 PM

Article image
Don’t give elites a legal way to strangle investigative journalism | Nick Hopkins
If MPs agree to some of the more radical clauses in the data protection bill, the media may no longer be able to challenge the conduct of wealthy and powerful people, says the Guardian’s head of investigations, Nick Hopkins

Nick Hopkins

06, Mar, 2018 @6:00 AM

Article image
Cliff Richard wins £210,000 in damages over BBC privacy case
Singer sued BBC for invasion of privacy over its coverage of child sexual abuse claims

Jim Waterson Media editor

18, Jul, 2018 @4:42 PM

Article image
Why the calls for legal curbs on the press? Because the watchdog has no teeth | Polly Toynbee
Calls for ‘Caroline’s law’ miss the point. What’s sorely missing is a genuinely independent regulator, says Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee

27, Feb, 2020 @4:24 PM

Article image
Robbie Williams’s tale is one of tabloid vitriol, but our dark obsession with celebrity lingers still | Elle Hunt
The documentary series about the troubled singer shows that, while the heyday of the paparazzi is over, pop stars are still prey to intrusion, says journalist Elle Hunt

Elle Hunt

08, Nov, 2023 @4:16 PM