In a recent post on Inforrm, my good friend Dr Paul Wragg sets out a detailed argument critiquing the High Court’s recent decision in Cliff Richard’s successful privacy claim against the BBC ( Richard v BBC ). Wragg takes the view that the reasoning of Mann J in the case is deficient in a number of respects, and that his disposal of the case is unsatisfactory. In short, Wragg argues that Sir Cliff Richard won a case that he probably should have lost, and the High Court has swung a wrecking ball through public interest journalism in the process. In what follows, I respond to these arguments and make the case that, notwithstanding some deficiencies in the judgment, the disposal of the case was essentially sound. I will not dwell on the facts of the case in this post, but readers may familiarise themselves with it here if needed. Wragg takes issue with Mann J’s treatment of both elements of the claim in “misuse of private information” (MPI). The first element is the question of whethe...
