Privacy and the Press updates

April 28, 2005

Criminal voyeurism (page 245)

In one of the first prosecutions for voyeurism under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, a man was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment on 22 April after he admitted installing miniature television cameras in rooms used by his tenants. Francesco Vitetta, a computer programmer, watched and recorded the images in a converted back room underneath the flat.
“During the course of 2004 Vitetta rented out three rooms to female students. The girls were English, French and Spanish,” said a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police.
“Whilst living at the address in Neville Road, Croydon, the girls became aware of a black object taped to the top of their wardrobes — they thought it was a light fitting — and also a similar black object poking out of a green washbag in the bathroom. During a visit from her mother, the French student showed her these objects and, on inspection, they took the decision to notify the police.
“Police searched this address and uncovered a large number of pirated DVDs, along with a small black receiver aerial and the necessary equipment for the manufacturing and distributing process. CCTV cameras were also found.”
Six days later, a man who set up a video camera to film his wife in the bathroom received a community sentence under the Act. His activities came to light when the man's wife switched on the television and saw her husband having a bath. You can read the Telegraph story here.

Posted at 08:00 AM

April 19, 2005

After Reynolds (page 190)

The Court of Appeal has agreed to consider whether the protection for neutral reportage in Al-Fagih should be extended to cases where reporters adopt allegations as their own. Yesterday, Lords Justices Tuckey and Latham gave the publishers of The Daily Telegraph permission to appeal against a finding last December by Mr Justice Eady that the newspaper had libelled the former Labour MP George Galloway. The appeal judges did so in the light of two recent rulings from the European Court of Human Rights: Thoma v Luxembourg (2001) and Selisto v Finland (2004). See my report in today's Telegraph. You can read the full judgment here.

Posted at 08:00 AM