Privacy debate-Max Mosley argues his case against the tabloid press

Sex, bugs and video tapes: The private lives of public figures deserve more protection from the press

07 Sep 2010

Speakers: Tom Bower, Zeinab Badawi, Max Mosley, Rachel Atkins, Ken Macdonald QC

This event took place at Cadogan Hall on September 7th 2010 and will be broadcast by BBC World News at the following times (all times in GMT):

September 18th 09:10 & 21:10

September 19th 02:10 & 15:10

Click here to read the accompanying written debate.

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Event info:

Arguing in favour of the motion were Max Mosley and Rachel Atkins.

Max Mosley states that “the essence of sex is private” and that it cannot be right for newspapers to “torment individuals like they were children tormenting somebody in the playground.” Some things, he says, are secret not because people are ashamed of them, but because they don’t want them on the front of any newspaper. Mosley worries that an individual’s privacy is now at the mercy of newspaper editors – who will decide that what you’re doing is wrong simply because they don’t approve of it.

Rachel Atkins suggests that the need for an enhanced privacy law rests on three things, namely the “devastation” caused by unverified and damaging stories about individuals, the impossibility of defining what it is that makes someone a “public figure”, and the fact that “privacy is a human right, enshrined in international statutes.” Atkins also worries that editors, who are making commercial decisions, are not the right people to decide whether something sensitive and unverified should or should not be published.

Arguing against the motion were Tom Bower and Ken Macdonald.

Tom Bower highlights that it is important to be able to expose the hypocrisy of an individual who presents himself to the public as trustworthy. In the UK there is a dangerous blurring of privacy and libel legislation, and under current privacy law even President Clinton would have been able to prevent the Monica Lewinsky story from breaking. Bower concludes that the media have “too little power, and not too much”.

Ken Macdonald doesn’t think that the development of current privacy law is striking an “appropriate balance between the right to privacy and free expression.” He warns that privacy laws forged to accommodate the exceptional cases would leave in their wake a cautious media, run by editors afraid to publish any story featuring a rich and powerful litigant. People without money, however, can’t afford to “put a price on their privacy.”

First vote: 236 For, 203 Against, 120 Don't know

Final vote: 200 For, 278 Against, 22 Don't know

The motion is defeated by 78 votes.

Speakers for the motion

Rachel Atkins

Partner at Schillings law firm, specialising in privacy and defamation. She has successfully acted for Wayne Rooney, Sir Stelios Haji-loannou, Kate Winslet and others.
Max Mosley

Former president of the FIA who has brought a case against the UK's privacy laws in the European Court of Human Rights

Chair

Zeinab Badawi

BBC World News presenter

Speakers against the motion

Tom Bower

Investigative journalist and author who has published books on Robert Maxwell, Richard Branson, Mohamed Fayed and Conrad and Lady Black
Ken Macdonald QC

Defence lawyer and former Director of Public Prosecutions; Liberal Democrat peer