United Kingdom: Publishing

A declaration of interest: as well as being a lawyer, I am also an author.

News of the World executives are being accused of acting illegally by gaining information via journalists and/or private investigators to listen into the private telephone conversations/ voicemails of well-known public figures.

Just as the old case of New York Times Co. v Sullivan in 1964 indicated a change in the wind that was to lead years later to the House of Lords decision in Reynolds v Times Newspapers, perhaps the recent Canadian decision of Grant v Torstar Corps can provide a way through the problems in the UK with implementing principles of freedom of expression against the powerful rights of privacy and reputation.