Max Mosley v News Group Newspapers Limited
Encyclopedia
Mosley v News Group Newspapers [2008] EWHC 1777 (QB) was an English High Court
case in which the former President of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
, Max Mosley
, challenged the News of the World
. The newspaper had exposed his involvement in what it called a Nazi-themed sadomasochistic sex act involving several female prostitutes when they published a video of the incident recorded by one of the women and published details of the incident in their newspaper. The case resulted in Mosley being awarded £60,000 (approx. US$92,000) in damages.
, had been President of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
since 1993 as well as being a trustee of its charitable arm the FIA Foundation
. He brought legal action against News Group Newspapers Ltd
, the publishers of the News of the World
newspaper, complaining about an article by journalist Neville Thurlbeck
published on 30 March 2008. The headline of the article was "F1 Boss has Sick Nazi Orgy with Five Hookers". This was accompanied by the sub-heading "Son of Hitler-loving fascist in sex shame". Mosley is the son of Oswald Mosley
, who was the leader of the British Union of Fascists
during the 1930s. Mosley relied upon an action based upon breach of confidence
or the unauthorised disclosure of personal information rather than defamation. Mosley claimed that the portrayal of sadomasochistic activities was inherently private in nature and that there had been a pre-existing relationship of confidentiality between the participants.
where there was "breach of confidence by way of conduct inconsistent with a pre-existing relationship, rather than simply of the purloining of private information". However, Justice David Eady
also stated "The law now affords protection to information in respect of which there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, even in circumstances where there is no pre-existing relationship giving rise of itself to an enforceable duty of confidence". He stated that the passing of the Human Rights Act 1998
required this conclusion and that therefore the relevant values in this case were expressed in Articles 8 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, as Campbell v MGN Ltd established these values are as much applicable to disputes between two private individuals as where one is a public body. Justice Eady believed that the first hurdle that needed to be overcome was the need to show a reasonable expectation of privacy, and if this could be overcome it was a matter of weighing up the competing Convention rights.
The News of the World published a 10-point rebuttal, insisting that there was a Nazi element to the scenario. The rebuttal argued, among other things, that the scenario included German military jackets, striped prison uniforms and medical examinations and that Mosley spoke in German or with a fake German accent. The News of the World also took an exclamation by one of the women "Brunettes rule!" as a reference to Nazi racial policies.
Justice Eady suggested that equating everything German with Nazism was offensive. He concluded that there was nothing specific to the Nazi period about the medical examination nor the fact that the claimant had his head shaved. Eady also concluded that the use of an English nom de guerre weakened the suggestion that there was a Nazi element to the incident. Eady suggested that the prison uniforms did nothing to identify the Nazi era.
on himself.
in respect to a headline which read "F1 boss has sick Nazi orgy with five hookers". The defendant argued that the newspaper's right to freedom of expression should prevail due to the public interest in knowing the individual was involved in Nazi role play and, irrespective of the Nazi element, the public had a right to know as the individual was the President of the FIA.
The court ruled that even in cases of adultery, sadomasochistic behaviour was generally not a matter of public interest but that there could be a public interest if the behaviour involved the mocking of Jews
or the Holocaust. Mosley was awarded £60,000 (approx. $92,000) from the case and the court ruled that there was no evidence of a Nazi element to the sex act.
expressed such sentiments after the judgment and noted the hefty price that newspapers would pay for getting a "public interest" decision wrong. Newspapers criticised the judgment, The Sun
describing it as "a dark day for British freedom" and a step towards "a dangerous European-style privacy law". However, lawyer Dan Trench argues that the level of damages awarded in privacy cases will not deter publication, and the judgment has been met with approval by some commentators.
Following the incident, Mosely faced a confidence vote as President of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
. He won the vote by 103 votes to 55. Mosley has stated his intention to pursue further libel actions in France, Germany and Italy where newspapers reprinted images of him engaging in sex acts.
Mosley was eventually replaced by former Ferrari team principal Jean Todt in 2009.
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
case in which the former President of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile is a non-profit association established as the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus on 20 June 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users...
, Max Mosley
Max Mosley
Max Rufus Mosley is the former president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile , a non-profit association that represents the interests of motoring organisations and car users worldwide...
, challenged the News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
. The newspaper had exposed his involvement in what it called a Nazi-themed sadomasochistic sex act involving several female prostitutes when they published a video of the incident recorded by one of the women and published details of the incident in their newspaper. The case resulted in Mosley being awarded £60,000 (approx. US$92,000) in damages.
Background
The claimant, Max MosleyMax Mosley
Max Rufus Mosley is the former president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile , a non-profit association that represents the interests of motoring organisations and car users worldwide...
, had been President of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile is a non-profit association established as the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus on 20 June 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users...
since 1993 as well as being a trustee of its charitable arm the FIA Foundation
FIA Foundation for the Automobile and Society
The FIA Foundation for the Automobile and Society is a foundation which undertakes "[...] research into public policy issues relating to the automobile’s interaction with society. We support initiatives that improve the environmental performance of the car...
. He brought legal action against News Group Newspapers Ltd
News International
News International Ltd is the United Kingdom newspaper publishing division of News Corporation. Until June 2002, it was called News International plc....
, the publishers of the News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
newspaper, complaining about an article by journalist Neville Thurlbeck
Neville Thurlbeck
Neville Thurlbeck is a British journalist who worked for the tabloid newspaper News of the World for 21 years. He reached the position of news editor before returning to the position of chief reporter. Thurlbeck was arrested in April 2011 as part of Operation Weeting.-Career:In 1998 Thurlbeck was...
published on 30 March 2008. The headline of the article was "F1 Boss has Sick Nazi Orgy with Five Hookers". This was accompanied by the sub-heading "Son of Hitler-loving fascist in sex shame". Mosley is the son of Oswald Mosley
Oswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, was an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists...
, who was the leader of the British Union of Fascists
British Union of Fascists
The British Union was a political party in the United Kingdom formed in 1932 by Sir Oswald Mosley as the British Union of Fascists, in 1936 it changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists and then in 1937 to simply the British Union...
during the 1930s. Mosley relied upon an action based upon breach of confidence
Breach of confidence in English law
Breach of confidence in English law is an equitable doctrine which allows a person to claim a remedy where their confidence has been breached. A duty of confidence arises when confidential information comes to the knowledge of a person in circumstances where it would be unfair if it were disclosed...
or the unauthorised disclosure of personal information rather than defamation. Mosley claimed that the portrayal of sadomasochistic activities was inherently private in nature and that there had been a pre-existing relationship of confidentiality between the participants.
Judgment
Mosley's case relied in part on the ruling in the case McKennitt v AshMcKennitt v Ash
McKennitt v Ash is an English legal case in which Loreena McKennitt, a Canadian folk singer, sued in England to prevent publication of extracts of a book written by a former friend on the grounds of privacy...
where there was "breach of confidence by way of conduct inconsistent with a pre-existing relationship, rather than simply of the purloining of private information". However, Justice David Eady
David Eady
Sir David Eady , styled The Hon. Mr Justice Eady, in legal writing Eady J, is a High Court judge in England and Wales. As a judge he is known for having presided over many high-profile libel and privacy cases....
also stated "The law now affords protection to information in respect of which there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, even in circumstances where there is no pre-existing relationship giving rise of itself to an enforceable duty of confidence". He stated that the passing of the Human Rights Act 1998
Human Rights Act 1998
The Human Rights Act 1998 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which received Royal Assent on 9 November 1998, and mostly came into force on 2 October 2000. Its aim is to "give further effect" in UK law to the rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights...
required this conclusion and that therefore the relevant values in this case were expressed in Articles 8 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, as Campbell v MGN Ltd established these values are as much applicable to disputes between two private individuals as where one is a public body. Justice Eady believed that the first hurdle that needed to be overcome was the need to show a reasonable expectation of privacy, and if this could be overcome it was a matter of weighing up the competing Convention rights.
The Nazi allegation
The principal factual dispute between the parties was whether there was any "Nazi" or "death camp" element to the incident. The claimant denied this as did four of the prostitutes. On the fourth day of the trial it was revealed that News Group Newspapers Limited would place no further reliance on "Woman E", the prostitute who had recorded the incident and eventually received £20,000 (approx. $31,000) for doing so. The lawyers representing Mosley contended that the video represented a "'standard' S-and-M prison scenario".The News of the World published a 10-point rebuttal, insisting that there was a Nazi element to the scenario. The rebuttal argued, among other things, that the scenario included German military jackets, striped prison uniforms and medical examinations and that Mosley spoke in German or with a fake German accent. The News of the World also took an exclamation by one of the women "Brunettes rule!" as a reference to Nazi racial policies.
Justice Eady suggested that equating everything German with Nazism was offensive. He concluded that there was nothing specific to the Nazi period about the medical examination nor the fact that the claimant had his head shaved. Eady also concluded that the use of an English nom de guerre weakened the suggestion that there was a Nazi element to the incident. Eady suggested that the prison uniforms did nothing to identify the Nazi era.
The missing e-mails
The News of the World placed weight on the fact that one of the prostitutes (Woman "A") deleted e-mails prior to the trial.Allegation of criminality
Justice Eady rejected the argument that Mosley could be said to have committed a crime under the Offences against the Person Act 1861Offences Against The Person Act 1861
The Offences against the Person Act 1861 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It consolidated provisions related to offences against the person from a number of earlier statutes into a single Act...
on himself.
Case
Mosley challenged the publication of details of his private life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human RightsEuropean Convention on Human Rights
The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is an international treaty to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by the then newly formed Council of Europe, the convention entered into force on 3 September 1953...
in respect to a headline which read "F1 boss has sick Nazi orgy with five hookers". The defendant argued that the newspaper's right to freedom of expression should prevail due to the public interest in knowing the individual was involved in Nazi role play and, irrespective of the Nazi element, the public had a right to know as the individual was the President of the FIA.
The court ruled that even in cases of adultery, sadomasochistic behaviour was generally not a matter of public interest but that there could be a public interest if the behaviour involved the mocking of Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
or the Holocaust. Mosley was awarded £60,000 (approx. $92,000) from the case and the court ruled that there was no evidence of a Nazi element to the sex act.
Criticism
The case has been criticised due to concerns that it may have a chilling effect on investigative journalism. Media lawyer Mark StephensMark Stephens (solicitor)
Mark Howard Stephens CBE is a British solicitor specialising in media law, intellectual property rights and human rights with the firm Finers Stephens Innocent...
expressed such sentiments after the judgment and noted the hefty price that newspapers would pay for getting a "public interest" decision wrong. Newspapers criticised the judgment, The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
describing it as "a dark day for British freedom" and a step towards "a dangerous European-style privacy law". However, lawyer Dan Trench argues that the level of damages awarded in privacy cases will not deter publication, and the judgment has been met with approval by some commentators.
Significance
Giving his reaction to the judgment, Mosley stated "I am delighted with that judgment, which is devastating for the News of the World. It demonstrates that their Nazi lie was completely invented and had no justification."Following the incident, Mosely faced a confidence vote as President of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile is a non-profit association established as the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus on 20 June 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users...
. He won the vote by 103 votes to 55. Mosley has stated his intention to pursue further libel actions in France, Germany and Italy where newspapers reprinted images of him engaging in sex acts.
Injunction
Mosley sought an injunction to prevent the re-publication of the video of him and five prostitutes from being put back onto the Internet. However, this was denied as Justice Eady concluded that the video was too widely available for the injunction to serve any purpose.Impact on Mosley's role as FIA President
The allegations made by the News of the World led to an 'unofficial' agreement between the FIA and FOTA (Formula One Teams Association, by far the most powerful and globally significant organization that interacts with the FIA) for Mosley to stand down from his role as President at the end of his current term. Many within the Formula 1, WTCC, WRC, etc. communities had long been unhappy with Mosley's style of governance and used the Nazi aspects of the story to attempt to oust him from office. Although Mosley claimed that his sexual activities (Nazi or otherwise) did not affect his role as President, his critics were able to produce evidence, in the form of official requests from a number of national governments to Mosley that he must not attend planned events, indicating that he had clearly lost what little respect remained to him within the global motor-sport community. To the majority of the motor-racing community, fans, and journalists, the sexual revelations acted as a final nail in Mosley's coffin, following as they did the substantial allegations of corruption, championship fixing, and unintelligible decisions (mostly in regard to F1) made both by Mosley personally and by the FIA under his watch.Mosley was eventually replaced by former Ferrari team principal Jean Todt in 2009.
Application to the European Court of Human Rights
On 29 September 2008, solicitors on behalf of Mosley filed an application to the European Court of Human Rights.See also
- News of the World phone hacking affairNews of the World phone hacking affairThe News International phone-hacking scandal is an ongoing controversy involving mainly the News of the World but also other British tabloid newspapers published by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation. Employees of the newspaper were accused of engaging in phone hacking, police...
- Privacy in English lawPrivacy in English lawPrivacy in English law is a rapidly developing area of English law that considers in what situations an individual has a legal right to informational privacy, that is to say the protection of personal information from misuse or unauthorised disclosure. Privacy law is distinct from those laws such...
- CTB v News Group NewspapersCTB v News Group NewspapersCTB v News Group Newspapers is an English legal case between Manchester United player Ryan Giggs, given the pseudonym CTB, and defendants News Group Newspapers Limited and model Imogen Thomas....