LONDON – British prime minister David Cameron sounded a warning yesterday about judges’ interventions into privacy law.
Mr Cameron said that in a parliamentary democracy it should be up to parliament to decide how much privacy individuals were entitled to.
His intervention came amid growing disquiet at the use by celebrities of injunctions and so-called super-injunctions to prevent media reporting of their private lives.
Speaking in Luton, Mr Cameron said that there was a need to think about the way the law was developing. “I think there is a question here about privacy and the way our system works.
“What’s happening here is that the judges are using the European Convention on Human rights to deliver a sort of privacy law without parliament saying so,” he said. “That’s what’s happening and I think that we do need to have a proper sit back and think: is this right, is this the right thing to happen?
“The judges are creating a sort of privacy law whereas what ought to happen in a parliamentary democracy is parliament, which you elect and put there, should decide how much protection do we want for individuals and how much freedom of the press and the rest of it. So I am a little uneasy about what is happening.”
Mr Cameron’s comments came after high court judge Mr Justice Eady yesterday issued what is thought to be the first order permanently blocking publication of material relating to an individual’s private life.
The case concerns a man who sought a ban on the publication of what he said was confidential material about his private life.
Giving his reasons yesterday for making the order, sought by the claimant at a hearing on April 6th, the judge said the High Court could use its inherent jurisdiction to grant injunctions banning anyone and everyone (a contra mundumorder) from publishing material "wherever it is necessary and proportionate" to use it to protect an individual's rights.
It is thought to be the first time such an order has been issued in a privacy case.
The decision marks yet another step in moves by the courts to extend protections for the right to respect for privacy and family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
In another high court hearing yesterday, a married Premier League footballer who reportedly had an affair with Big Brother's Imogen Thomas won the right to maintain his anonymity. – (PA)