Should the Law of Privacy Draw Inspiration from the Law of Defamation, and Introduce a Defence of Qualified Privilege for when the Media Wishes to Publish Private Information about Public Figures?
Author: James Griffiths
Publisher:
Published: 2007
Total Pages: 63
ISBN-13: 9780494402498
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis thesis explores the complex and often conflicting relationship between the right to privacy and the right to freedom of expression, focusing in the main on the legal situation as it currently stands in the United Kingdom. I will argue that, in order to solve problems of uncertainty in the law of privacy regarding how the media may act when it wishes to publish personal details of those in the public eye, the Courts ought to draw inspiration from the defence of qualified privilege that is available to media defendants under the law of defamation. The thesis will examine how this concept functions in the defamation context, and how, with certain modifications, it could potentially be imported into the law of privacy in order to ensure that greater legal certainty prevails and that issues of genuine public interest are not buried by the media for fear of subsequent privacy litigation.