Confidentiality Flashcards
What is confidentiality?
Civil matter - the person with the best argument wins - no jury
He who has obtained information in confidence should not take advantage of it as they are trusted
When was it first developed?
1849
Prince Albert v Strange
Albert obtained the first confidence injunction against strange preventing him from printing unauthorised copies of him and Queen Victoria.
How do you get an injunction?
You must be able to show the high court that it’s broken the Megarry triple test
1) complainant and their lawyer must quickly contact the judge as soon as they hear about the story as the media may not know that they’re applying for an injunction
2) the judge will order an interim injunction to temporarily stop the media from publishing the story
3) if no one challenges the interim injunction it will stay in place
The complainant only needs to inform the publisher by phone or email
The publisher can challenge it
What is the Megarry triple test?
1) obligation of confidence - relates to the relationship between the person giving and receiving the information - trust
2) quality of confidence - the evidence must have the feel of confidence - how confidential is it really? Must not be in the public domain (personal info, state secrets, medical records, company secrets)
3) detriment - complainant has to prove the story being published will cause them harm e.g financially or didn’t want people to know
What are the problems with the Megarry triple test?
An individual might not be telling the truth
They may have misunderstood the information
Who can you check the fact and stories with?
What are the possible defences of confidentiality?
Overriding public interest
That the information is already in the public domain
What happens if you ignore an injunction?
Up to 2 years imprisonment
Or
You must drop the story
Or
An unlimited fee
(The aim is to clamp down on the story quickly)
What happened in the Princess Diana 1993 case?
Princess Diana v Sunday mirror 1993
Bruce Taylor took and sold images of Diana at her gym.
Took place prior to privacy law so they use confidentiality law
The Sunday mirror printed the story anyway and said there was a public interest in her lack of security
The PCC received a tonne of complaints
Diana lawyers protested by continuing the story with a fake image of her - they then apologised
What happened in the Catharine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas 2000 case?
Against Hello! Magazine
They had an arrangement with Ok magazine to have exclusive rights to their wedding pics.
A paparazzi photographer got a job in their catering company and took secret photos
They then sold them to The Sun and Hello! Which ruined Ok’s exclusive
Hello! Had to pay £14,600 as they published the images first
The photographer wasn’t punished because he had little to give
Court ruled Hello! Had breached confidentiality
