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Paul Dacre: Statutory privacy law would have 'deleterious and chilling effect' on press freedom

Posted: 23/04/09 By: Laura Oliver

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The editor of the Daily Mail has said he would not support a statutory privacy law in Britain, but has called for a parliamentary debate on existing legislation.

Giving evidence to a House of Commons Select Committee on press standards, privacy and libel, Paul Dacre said he was 'unequivocally' not in favour of the UK parliament introducing its own privacy act.

"I believe it would have a very deleterious and chilling effect on freedom of the press and media in general. I believe the Human Rights Act needs to be amended and re-calibrated to the democratic process of a vibrant and free press," he said - a sentiment that is supported by Jack Straw, and also the Conservative party, he added.

The right to privacy is currently legislated for by the Human Rights Act, which in 1998 incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights into domestic law.

A statutory privacy law would likely lead to an increase in injunctions against newspapers, which are costly, time-consuming and 'a dangerous form of prior restraint', said Dacre.

If an individual found a newspaper was making inquiries about them, even if the title was not near to publication of the story, they could obtain an injunction more readily under such legislation, he added.

In cases where a story could be justified by 'public interest', Dacre said he was not sure that many judges understood what this meant for the British public.

"I'm not sure that judges, many of whom come from a narrow and privileged background, always understand what's in the public interest. Many of them have a low opinion of the popular press and they're not elected," he said, echoing the comments he made in his Society of Editors' address last year.

Parliament needs to debate the position of judges in light of this and look at the impact of European legislation, such as the Human Rights Act, on privacy rulings and UK press freedom, he stressed.

On Tuesday journalists Nick Davies and Roy Greenslade gave evidence to the committee. More coverage of Dacre's comments will follow on Journalism.co.uk.

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