Important cases- Law lecture 9

Media Law lecture 9 involved taking the laws we have looked at so far and applying them to real cases where they have been put into use.

Starting with privacy and confidentiality, we firstly reviewed the fact that section 8 overrules section 10 meaning that there is a freedom of the press, but they cannot invade privacy. This has been seen in such cases involving people such as Princess Caroline who had her photo taken despite her sitting deep inside a restaurant. In this case she obviously did not want her photograph taken and there she could use her section 8 rights to say that her privacy was being invaded. If she was sitting outside the restaurant then she is in clear public view and it would have been harder for her to used section 8.

Naomi Campbell also used these rights when leaving rehabilitation for drug use and sued successfully under section 8, as the papers claim that this was in the public interest was rejected. A celebrity magazine was also sued by Catherine Zeta Jones for invasion of privacy after a photograph was taken of her eating cake at her wedding despite the rights of the wedding going to another celebrity magazine.

I was also made aware and surprised to find out that the royals cannot use section 8 as everything they do in public is a public matter and therefore they have no confidentiality.

John Terry’s attempt to use a super injunction to hide the fact an injunction had been granted to stop his private life being displayed on the front of national newspapers is another use of section 8 to stop freedom of the press, as was the case involving Beckham’s nanny.

Libel and defamation cases, which involves people who have had information published about themselves which have had the potential to make someone shunned and avoided, looked down upon by the right minded people of society and the potential for them to lose out of income from a job because of this information, have involved people such as Britney Spears, Tommy Sheridan, Jeffery Archer and others.

Britney Spears failed in her claim for $10 dollars after it was claimed that she appeared in porn. The defence however was that she appears semi-naked to arouse in her music videos and therefore this is a type of porn, making this statement fair comment.

Tommy Sheridan sued the News of The World and won after it was claimed he visited brothels as this is also a defamatory statement as he is a married man. However he lied in court and was then sent to prison for perjury.

Jeffery Archer’s case is famous as it was claimed he visited prostitutes despite being married. However in court the prostitutes were not believed despite his lies in court and evidence against him, therefore he won this case.

The Rahmin case, allowed Dr Rhamin to win £1million against claims from ITV that he was incompetent as a doctor and a surgeon; this is definitely defamatory as it is without a doubt going to lose him money as a result of these claims, with people not wanting him to operate on them.

The cases all show the effects of the laws we have learnt this semester and how they are used to effect within the real world.