ABSTRACT
The law in the UK grudgingly accepted that privacy needed protection and developed alongside a society that provided both more opportunities for privacy but also more requirements for it. The growth in literacy brought with it a need for privacy and secrecy in correspondence. There is plenty of evidence that a concern for privacy goes back as far as there have been opportunities or circumstances that can lead to intrusions. David Vincent gives examples taken from the London Assize of Nuisance back in 1341 of Isabel, the relict of John Luter, complaining that a neighbour and his servants could see into her garden. The Leveson Inquiry took evidence for around a year before spending four months writing the almost 2,000 page inquiry report to published in November 2012. L. J. Leveson and most of the criticism of the media in parliament and elsewhere focused largely on the press, leaving broadcasters to watch on smugly.
