Cases

McKennitt v Ash (QBD)

Held

Finding for C on the majority of passages in the book complained of, Held: the court needed to consider each passage separately to decide (1) whether the threshold test of reasonable expectation of privacy had been passed and (2) whether any 'limiting factor' applied, such as public domain or public interest, including whether information should escape protection as being banal, trivial or anodyne. The principles in Von Hannover are of wider application than harassment by the tabloid press. In matters of personal information, the courts would be less ready to assume protection had been lost forever on the basis that it had entered the public domain. The relevant test is whether the information in question is so generally accessible that in all the circumstances it cannot be regarded as confidential. A high degree of misbehaviour is necessary on the part of the Claimant to engage a defence of public interest in 'exposure of misconduct cases' rather than mere peccadillos of a celebrity.

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