24/07/2008
NEWS STORY
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FIA President Max Mosley has won record damages of £60,000 in his privacy case against the News of the World. However, he was not awarded the exemplary (punitive) damages he sought. Costs have yet to be agreed.
Justice Eady ruled that Mosley's privacy was violated by the British tabloid and that the newspaper was not justified in publishing the story despite the FIA President's high international profile.
Eady said there was no evidence of a Nazi theme to the orgy in late March, and it was this, the Nazi claim, that provoked Mosley into taking action more than anything else.
Revealing the reasoning behind his decision, Eady said: "I decided that the claimant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in relation to sexual activities (albeit unconventional) carried on between consenting adults on private property. I found that there was no evidence that the gathering on 28 March 2008 was intended to be an enactment of Nazi behaviour or adoption of any of its attitudes. Nor was it in fact. I see no genuine basis at all for the suggestion that the participants mocked the victims of the Holocaust.
"There was bondage, beating and domination which seem to be typical of S&M behaviour," he continued. "But there was no public interest or other justification for the clandestine recording, for the publication of the resulting information and still photographs, or for the placing of the video extracts on the News of the World's website. All of this on a massive scale.
"Of course, I accept that such behaviour is viewed by some people with distaste and moral disapproval, but in the light of modern rights-based jurisprudence that does not provide any justification for the intrusion on the personal privacy of the claimant.
"It is perhaps worth adding that there is nothing 'landmark' about this decision," he added. "It is simply the application to rather unusual facts of recently developed but established principles. Nor can it seriously be suggested that the case is likely to inhibit serious investigative journalism into crime or wrongdoing, where the public interest is more genuinely engaged.
"It is necessary, therefore, to afford an adequate financial remedy for the purpose of acknowledging the infringement and compensating, to some extent, for the injury to feelings, the embarrassment and distress caused. I am not persuaded that it is right to extend the application of exemplary damages into this field or to include an additional element specifically directed towards deterrence. That does not seem to me to be a legitimate exercise in awarding compensatory damages.
"It has to be recognised that no amount of damages can fully compensate the claimant for the damage done. He is hardly exaggerating when he says that his life was ruined. What can be achieved by a monetary award in the circumstances is limited. Any award must be proportionate and avoid the appearance of arbitrariness. I have come to the conclusion that the right award, taking all these circumstances into account, is £60,000."
Speaking after the verdict was announced, Mosley said: This has nailed the Nazi lie upon which the News of the World sought to justify its disgraceful intrusion into my private life."
The case is the latest in a number of defeats for tabloids in the British law courts, the most recent examples being the damages awarded to the family of Madeleine McCann and also Robert Murat, the local resident given arguido (suspect) status in the McCann case.
Leading journalist and broadcaster Andrew Neil described the verdict as a "sad day for the freedom of the press".