Privacy law unsustainable in age of social media, says Cameron

Ministers under pressure to respond to escalating battle between celebrities and media as Scottish newspaper names footballer at centre of privacy injunction storm David Cameron has suggested that the UK’s current law on privacy is “unsustainable” and needs to “catch up” with the advent of social media, which has left the press at a disadvantage. The prime minister made his comments as ministers came under pressure to respond to the escalating privacy battle between celebrities and the media following the decision by a Scottish Sunday newspaper to name a footballer at the centre of a storm over a privacy injunction. Tens of thousands of Twitter users had already named him. The legal adviser to the Sunday Herald – which published the photograph yesterday – condemned the “surreal, parallel universe” in which everyone with access to the internet knows who the individual is, but mainstream news organisations cannot publish his name because of the privacy injunction. The Scottish first minister, Alex Salmond, pointed out that English law has “no jurisdiction whatsoever” in Scotland, and said English injunctions were “increasingly impracticable” in the modern multimedia age. Cameron admitted the current situation was “unfair” on the press and said the government had “got to take some time out” to look at the matter, but said there was no “simple answer”. He suggested one option could be to beef up the press watchdog. Speaking to ITV1′s Daybreak, the prime minister said: “It is rather unsustainable, this situation, where newspapers can’t print something that everyone else is clearly talking about. “But there’s a difficulty here because the law is the law and the judges just interpret what the law is.” He said there was a danger that judges’ rulings were “effectively writing a sort of new law” – which is what parliament is meant to do. “So I think government, parliament’s got to take some time out, have a proper look at this, have a think about what we can do,” he added. “But I’m not sure there’s going to be a simple answer to it.” The prime minister indicated that he knew the identity of the footballer “like everybody else”. The married footballer – referred to as CTB in court documents – is alleged to have had a “sexual relationship” with the former Big Brother contestant Imogen Thomas. Cameron added: “It’s not fair on the newspapers if all the social media can report this and the newspapers can’t, and so the law and the practice has got to catch up with how people consume media today. “I don’t think there’s an easy answer to this. Perhaps the way through is to look again at the Press Complaints Commission, the work it does … if people can have more confidence in that than we can have less of this current approach. “But we’re going to have to take some time out to really have a think about this.” Salmond said it would be “extremely foolish” for the attorney general in England to try to start contempt proceedings amidst reports that such move is being considered against the Sunday Herald. The first minister stressed that Scotland has a separate legal system and ridiculed the idea that English court rules on any subject “should pertain across the planet”. “I think it would be very, very unlikely that an attorney general would be as foolish as to do so [try to start contempt proceedings against the Sunday Herald],” he told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme. “I think the political issue is whether it is tenable to pursue this sort of injunction. I would have thought there is an increasing view it is untenable to do so. “There is a whole question of what is of interest to the public and what is in the public interest, which can often be different things. But the law essentially is a practical thing. It looks to me like English law and English injunctions are increasingly impractical in the modern world.” Despite an injunction lodged in England, the Sunday Herald carried a full-page picture of the footballer, with a thin black band across his eyes and the word “censored” in capital letters. He is easily recognisable, and the caption below the photograph read: “Everyone knows that this is the footballer accused of using the courts to keep allegations of a sexual affair secret. But we weren’t supposed to tell you that …” In an accompanying article, the paper named a footballer as being the subject of speculation on Twitter. Paul McBride QC, the Sunday Herald’s legal adviser, said it was unacceptable for unelected judges to make decisions to grant injunctions in private. Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, he said there needed to be a debate about the way forward over granting privacy injunctions. He said: “Parliament now has to look at this issue. We can’t have unelected judges making these decisions in private when we have the internet out there where everyone can access the information they’re trying to keep secret. “We had the absurd position this week of even MPs in our democratically elected parliament being threatened with potential contempt of court for using their parliamentary privilege to name people. That’s not acceptable any more. “We’re having this kind of surreal, parallel universe conversation where everyone with a mobile phone and access to the internet knows who the individual is, but mainstream news organisations can’t publish his name. “In the case of the Sunday Herald, the decision was one of principle. The so-called super injunction didn’t apply in this particular jurisdiction, and those representing the particular individual didn’t take precautions to apply for an interdict in Scotland. “In relation to the Sunday Herald article, there was no discussion about the individual’s private life – it was simply to name him as the person who was using a tool of law which has widely now been brought into disrepute.” Last week, lawyers acting for a footballer launched legal proceedings against Twitter after a number of people claimed to have revealed the footballer’s identity on the site. At the same time, the lord chief justice, Lord Judge, warned that “modern technology was totally out of control” and, called for those who “peddle lies” on the internet to be fined. David Cameron Alex Salmond Scottish politics Privacy & the media Scotland Superinjunctions Judiciary Social media Twitter Internet Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk

Posted by on May 23, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.