Clive Coleman discusses the role of privacy and defamation in the BBC Presenter story on Good Morning Britain

Senior Partner Clive Coleman yesterday appeared on Good Morning Britain, discussing the right to privacy and defamation in the context of the ongoing BBC presenter controversy.

Clive, the former BBC Legal Correspondent, outlined the development of the law on the right to privacy, from the introduction of the Human Rights Act in 2000, through a series of cases in the English courts, notably involving Naomi Campbell, Max Mosley, and Sir Cliff Richard. He charted how we have arrived at the position that anyone who is a suspect in a criminal investigation has a reasonable expectation in law that they will not be identified unless and until they are charged.

He also discussed the landmark libel case of McAlpine v Bercow, which found that a Tweet can be treated as a defamatory publication in the same manner as a book or detailed newspaper article.

Clive highlighted how naming someone in this context could open up two avenues of civil law recourse for the named party: breach of privacy and defamation, claims that can be both expensive and difficult to defend.

Watch Clive’s interview on Good Morning Britain here (segment starts at 1:51:20).

Clive also commented on the Presenter story on the Nicky Campbell programme and the Naga Munchetty programme on BBC Radio Five Live, and on GB News.