‘Hold The Backpage’: Clive Coleman speaks on the changing landscape of defamation and the right to privacy

Our Senior Partner Clive Coleman shared the stage with some sporting greats at the recent ‘Hold The Backpage’ conference organised by The Press Justice Project.

Clive spoke on a panel with sports broadcasting legend Gary Newbon and former head of player engagement at football’s ‘Kick It Out’, Troy Townsend.

The discussion covered the responsibilities of the media in reporting on the lives of professional sportspeople. Clive spoke of how old-style defamation cases had declined since the 2013 Defamation Act which imposed the higher burden of proving the defamatory words caused ‘serious harm’ for claimants. On the other hand, claims for breach of privacy had flourished since the coming into force of the Human Rights Act 1998. Prior to the act, there was not right to privacy in UK law. That point was made clear by the Court of Appeal in the case of the great comedy actor Gordon Kaye. Following a serious car accident which required the actor to undergo brain surgery, two reporters from the Sunday Sport posed as doctors and took photographs of him in hospital. Kaye sued for the invasion of privacy but was told by the appeal court judges that there was no right to privacy in our law. Enter the Human Rights Act Article 8, the right to a family and private life. For the first time it gave wealthy and powerful people the means to sue newspapers. Referencing the BBC Panorama ‘The Death of Kiss and Tell’ that he presented in 2009, Clive described how the judge made law of privacy had developed through the cases of Naomi Campbell (health and addiction), Max Mosely (sexual acts between consenting adults) and Cliff Richard (being a suspect in a criminal investigation) and had spread like the roots of a tree establishing areas of our lives where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy which can only be pierced by the media if there is an overwhelming public interest.

Troy Townsend spoke about the press agenda towards athletes and the narrative they create often with scant regard to facts and substance. Gary Newbon talked about the step change in relations between sportspeople and the media. Reaching back to his days interviewing the great football manager Brian Clough, Gary illustrated how there was a much higher degree of trust and confidence between our sporting stars and the press. Private matters generally stayed private, the press got access to the stars and the focus remained largely on the sport itself.