Libel lawyer gives privacy warning after CA ruling

Media: Woolf attaches emphasis to stability of relationships

A leading libel lawyer warned that last week's Court of Appeal judgment allowing the publication of 'kiss and tell' stories from two women who had affairs with a married footballer could lead to a 'moral quagmire' in the courts.In his ruling, overturning a previous judgment banning the Sunday People newspaper from publishing the two interviews, Lord Woolf said that while married couples owe each other an obligation not to reveal secrets, the courts did not have a duty to protect the confidentiality of brief affairs of the sort the footballer enjoyed with the two women.He concluded that barring the two women from telling their stories for publication was an interference with their freedom of expression.Marcus Partington, head of legal at Trinity Mirror - publishers of the Sunday People - hailed the result as 'historic'.

He said: 'This is an excellent day for the press, as the court has declared that public figures must expect a greater depth of scrutiny than other people, whether they actively court it or not'.However, leading libel lawyer Keith Schilling, whose firm Schilling & Lom is representing model Naomi Campbell in her invasion of privacy action against the Mirror newspaper, said that by giving married relationships a higher status of confidence than an unmarried relationship, the court was moving into a 'moral quagmire'.He added: 'If Lord Woolf says that the more stable a relationship, is the greater significance it will have in the courts, who defines the nature and intensity of a relationship?'He denied that the ruling would have a reflection on Ms Campbell's case, in which she was photographed leaving a meeting of Narcotics Anonymous.'Disclosing details of a transient sexual relationship is a million miles away from exposing medical treatment or therapy,' he said.

Victoria MacCallum