ABSTRACT
While there is no common right to privacy, the law relating to breach of confidence has been expanded to a degree which suggests that privacy claims are being given greater protection than was the case prior to the Human Rights Act 1998. In Douglas v Hello! Ltd (2001), the Court of Appeal ruled that individuals had a right of personal privacy which was grounded in the equitable doctrine of breach of confidence.95 Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones had granted OK! magazine exclusive rights to publish photographs of their wedding. Hello! magazine had obtained photographs of the wedding and had been subjected to an interim injunction restraining publication before the trial of the substantive issues.96 In this case, the claimants had lessened the degree of privacy concerning their wedding by allowing OK! magazine to publish photographs, thereby affecting the balance between their rights (to privacy) and the rights of others to freedom of expression. The court discharged the injunction. However, in a strong statement of principle, Sedley LJ said that ‘we have reached a point at which it can be said with confidence that the law recognises and will appropriately protect a right of personal privacy’.
