Mosley loses privacy law case at European court

Amid the furore over injunctions banning publication of salacious stories about celebrities, the press have won a significant court battle in Europe today, where privacy campaigner Max Mosley's efforts to force newspapers to give advance warning to anyone they are writing about ended in defeat.
 
Judges at the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the media was not required to give prior notice to the subject of stories, signalling the end of Mosley's campaign to introduce new privacy laws.
 
Mosley, the former boss of Formula 1, was the victim of a News of the World sting in 2008, but later won £60,000 in damages after the High Court in London ruled that the paper had violated his right to privacy by reporting on his sex life.
 
He then took his campaign to Europe and challenged existing privacy laws. Had he won, new laws, opposed by the Btitish press, could have been brought in.
 
After hearing the verdict Mosley declared that he was "disappointed" but warned newspaper editors: "It's not over yet."
 
He added that the ruling meant there was still "a gap in the law which should have been closed where newspapers ambush people".
 
The court was highly critical of the NoW, but said it had to "look beyond the facts of the case and to consider the broader impact of a pre-notification requirement". It said that forcing the media to forewarn its subjects could have a "chilling effect".
 
However, the judges said that the NoW was "open to severe criticism" for the way it handled the story, and said that covert photographs and video footage used by the paper had been published "merely to titillate the public and increase the embarrassment of the applicant".
 
The ruling came as the row over injunctions rumbled on and the Press Complaints Commission reprimanded the Daily Telegraph over the secret recordings two of its reporters, posing as local voters, made of business secretary Vince Cable at his constituency surgery.
 
The PCC said the paper had breached the rules on "subterfuge" after complaints that the reporters had been sent on a "fishing expedition". It said the paper had launched the "disproportionately intrusive attention" without sufficient reason.
 
Cable told the two female journalists that he had "declared war" on Rupert Murdoch and that being in a coalition government was like "fighting a war". He declared himself "delighted" with the PCC verdict. ·