Mosley v News Group Newspapers Limited
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''Mosley v News Group Newspapers''
008 008, OO8, O08, or 0O8 may refer to: * The Streetwear Brand @008us , inspired by Ian Fleming & Virgil Abloh *"030", the fictional 030 Agent of MI6 * '' 038: Operation Exterminate'', a 1965 Italian action film * '' Explosivo 030'' a 1940 Argentine c ...
EWHC 1777 (QB) was an English High Court case in which the former President of the
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA; en, International Automobile Federation) is an association established on 20 June 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users. It is the governing body for ...
,
Max Mosley Max Rufus Mosley (13 April 1940 – 23 May 2021) was a British racing driver, lawyer, and president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), a non-profit association which represents the interests of motoring organisations and ...
, challenged the ''
News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national Tabloid journalism#Red tops, red top Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling En ...
''. The newspaper had exposed his involvement in what it called a
sadomasochistic Sadomasochism ( ) is the giving and receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation. Practitioners of sadomasochism may seek sexual pleasure from their acts. While the terms sadist and masochist refer ...
sex act involving several female
prostitute Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...
s when they published a video of the incident recorded by one of the women and published details of the incident in their newspaper, wrongly describing it as "Nazi-themed". The case resulted in Mosley being awarded £60,000 (approx. US$92,000) in damages.


Background

The claimant,
Max Mosley Max Rufus Mosley (13 April 1940 – 23 May 2021) was a British racing driver, lawyer, and president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), a non-profit association which represents the interests of motoring organisations and ...
, had been President of the
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA; en, International Automobile Federation) is an association established on 20 June 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users. It is the governing body for ...
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 The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national Tabloid journalism#Red tops, red top Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling En ...
'' newspaper, complaining about an article by journalist
Neville Thurlbeck Neville Thurlbeck (born 7 October 1961) 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 arr ...
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 was the son of
Oswald Mosley Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (16 November 1896 – 3 December 1980) was a British politician during the 1920s and 1930s who rose to fame when, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, he turned to fascism. He was a member ...
, who was the leader of the 1930s
British Union of Fascists The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a British fascist political party formed in 1932 by Oswald Mosley. Mosley changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists in 1936 and, in 1937, to the British Union. In 1939, fo ...
. Mosley relied upon an action based upon
breach of confidence The tort A tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with criminal wrongs that are ...
or the unauthorised disclosure of personal information rather than defamation. Mosley claimed that sexual or sadomasochistic activities were inherently private in nature and that their portrayal was an invasion of privacy by reason of a pre-existing relationship of confidentiality between the participants.


Judgment

Mosley's case relied in part on the ruling in the case '' McKennitt v Ash'' 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 Sir David Eady, KC (born 24 March 1943) is a retired High Court judge in England and Wales. As a judge, he is known for having presided over many high-profile libel and privacy cases. He was called to the bar in 1966 and became a Queen's ...
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 preexisting relationship giving rise of itself to an enforceable duty of confidence". He stated that the passing of the
Human Rights Act 1998 The Human Rights Act 1998 (c. 42) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which received royal assent on 9 November 1998, and came into force on 2 October 2000. Its aim was to incorporate into UK law the rights contained in the European Con ...
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 was a House of Lords decision regarding human rights and privacy in English law. Facts The British model Naomi Campbell was photographed leaving a rehabilitation clinic after public denials that she was a recovering drug addict. The photograp ...
'' established these values are as much applicable to disputes between two private individuals as where one is a public body. Justice Eady held that the first hurdle 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.


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 that, 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 (abour $31,000) for doing so. The lawyers representing Mosley contended that the video represented a "'standard' S-and-M prison scenario". When Mosley issued a denial after the first article was published, the ''News of the World'' published a further article the following Sunday including a ten-point rebuttal that insisted that there was a Nazi element to the scenario. The rebuttal argued, among other things, that the scenario included an imitation modern German
Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
jacket, striped prison uniforms, and medical examinations and that Mosley spoke in
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
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 or the fact that the claimant had his head shaved. Eady also concluded that the use of an English ''
nom de guerre A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
'' 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.


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 1861 on himself.


Case

Mosley challenged the publication of details of his private life under Article 8 of the
European Convention on Human Rights The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by t ...
in respect to the 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 because of the public interest in knowing the individual was involved in Nazi
roleplay Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing a ...
and that irrespective of the Nazi element, the public had a right to know since the individual was FIA President. However the court ruled that "there was no evidence that the gathering of 28 March 2008 was intended to be an enactment of Nazi behaviour or adoption of any of its attitudes. Nor was it in fact". The court ruled that even in cases of
adultery Adultery (from Latin ''adulterium'') is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and legal ...
,
sadomasochistic Sadomasochism ( ) is the giving and receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation. Practitioners of sadomasochism may seek sexual pleasure from their acts. While the terms sadist and masochist refer ...
behaviour was generally not a matter of public interest, but there could be a public interest if the behaviour involved the mocking of
Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
or the
Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
. However, there was "no genuine basis at all for the suggestion that the participants mocked the victims of the Holocaust". Mosley was awarded damages of £60,000 (about $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 In a legal context, a chilling effect is the inhibition or discouragement of the legitimate exercise of natural and legal rights by the threat of legal sanction. A chilling effect may be caused by legal actions such as the passing of a law, the ...
on investigative journalism. Media lawyer Mark Stephens 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 and referred to with approval in the Supreme Court in
PJS v News Group Newspapers Ltd ''PJS v News Group Newspapers Ltd'' 016UKSC 26 is a UK constitutional law case in which an anonymised privacy injunctionThe injunction has been incorrectly referred to as a "super-injunction" in some media reports. Super-injunctions prohibit pub ...
.


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". After the incident, Mosley sought a confidence vote as President of the
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA; en, International Automobile Federation) is an association established on 20 June 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users. It is the governing body for ...
, which he won by 103 votes to 55. Mosley stated that his intention to pursue further libel actions in France, Germany and Italy, where newspapers reprinted images of him engaging in sex acts. In France, criminal proceeding against News Group Newspapers Ltd resulted in a fine of €10,000, plus damages of €7,000 and €15,000 costs for Mosley.


Injunction

In April 2008, immediately after publication of the story, Mosley's lawyers asked the ''News of the World'' to remove the video of him and the five prostitutes from its website. The newspaper did so, but then put it back. Mosley then sought an injunction to prevent the republication of the video. However, he was denied as Justice
David Eady Sir David Eady, KC (born 24 March 1943) is a retired High Court judge in England and Wales. As a judge, he is known for having presided over many high-profile libel and privacy cases. He was called to the bar in 1966 and became a Queen's ...
concluded that the video was too widely available for the injunction to serve any purpose. In July 2008, Justice Eady granted a permanent injunction, restraining News Group Newspapers from showing the video.


Libel

In April 2009, a libel action was brought against News Group Newspapers Limited.


Impact on 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 did not affect his role as president, his critics produced evidence in the form of official requests from a number of national governments to Mosley that he must not attend planned events, which indicated 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 since they followed substantial allegations of corruption, championship fixing and unintelligible decisions, mostly in regard to Formula One that were made by Mosley personally and by the FIA under his watch. Mosley was eventually replaced by the former Ferrari team principal
Jean Todt Jean Todt (; born 25 February 1946) is a French motor racing executive and former rally co-driver. He was previously director of Peugeot Talbot Sport and then Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 team principal, before being appointed chief executive offic ...
in 2009.


Application to European Court of Human Rights

On 29 September 2008, solicitors on behalf of Mosley filed an application to the
European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...
.


See also

*
News of the World phone hacking affair The News International phone hacking scandal was a controversy involving the now-defunct ''News of the World'' and other British newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch. Employees of the newspaper were accused of engaging in phone hacking, police b ...
*
Privacy in English law Privacy in English law is a rapidly developing area of English law that considers situations where individuals have a legal right to informational privacy - the protection of personal or private information from misuse or unauthorized disclosure ...
* '' CTB v News Group Newspapers Ltd''


References


External links


Mosley v News Group Newspapers Limited

Reaction of the News of the World

Reaction of Max Mosley

Timeline of the case
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mosley V News Group Newspapers Limited English privacy case law BDSM High Court of Justice cases 2008 in case law 2008 in British law News of the World