Newspaper groups are calling on the government to stop rich and powerful people using British privacy laws to evade scrutiny.
Times Newspapers, the Telegraph Media Group and Associated Newspapers, which owns the Daily Mail, were among those who raised concerns as part of a joint submission to the government’s consultation on reforming the Human Rights Act.
The media groups said that judges’ increasing readiness to favour individual privacy over freedom of expression was a “grave concern”. They said: “It is notable that the issue has recently also come to the fore of public debate, with concerns raised in parliament about how individuals with vast resources are able to wield publication law as a weapon to stifle investigation and debate on matters of public interest.”
•The Times view on freedom to report: Pressing Case
The drift has been noted in victories for the Duchess of Sussex and Sir Cliff Richard in privacy cases against The Mail on Sunday and the BBC respectively. The Supreme Court ruled against the financial news agency Bloomberg last month in a decision that made it harder for the media to report on criminal suspects before they are charged.
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The newspaper publishers used their consultation submission to call for three key protections for journalists. They want to raise the threshold for privacy claims to make it harder for powerful people such as celebrities and Russian oligarchs to stifle reporting.
They called for the Human Rights Act to be updated so courts take into account if a claimant is a public figure and if the story they are fighting “relates to the exercise of power by the state”. Courts do not have to consider such factors under European laws enshrined in the UK’s Human Rights Act in 1998.
Dominic Raab, the justice secretary, has pledged to correct the balance between free speech and privacy. He has criticised a “drift towards continental-style privacy laws”.
In another request, the media companies called on ministers to remove journalism from data protection laws, which they said were being exploited by litigants. This would bring Britain in line with other democracies, such as Australia, Germany and Sweden.
The publishers want individual journalists to be protected from so-called Slapp (strategic litigation against public participation). The term describes the action of a powerful and wealthy plaintiff who does not necessarily expect to prevail in a court case but can, with no financial constraints, exhaust the time and resources of defendants, a tactic known as “lawfare”.
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Catherine Belton, author of Putin’s People, was the subject of Slapp lawsuits brought last year by four oligarchs, including Roman Abramovich. The cases were settled or withdrawn. Her publisher, HarperCollins, which is owned by the parent group of The Times, had a legal bill of £1.5 million.
The Ministry of Justice consultation paper said the government “believes the public interest is overwhelmingly assisted by protection for freedom of expression in a free and vibrant media”.
