Privacy and Injunctions - Evidence - Parliament

David Price QC, Gavin Millar QC, Gillian Phillips, solicitor, Director of Editorial Legal
Services ,The Guardian, and Reynolds Porter Chamberlain—Oral evidence (QQ 33–64)
Gillian Phillips: I have two answers to that. One is that of course footballers go on
holiday in the summer and see a lot more of their wives rather than when they play away in
a Blackburn winter or whatever. I think there is a seasonal tendency in that regard.
Q844 Lord Thomas of Gresford: They are just coming back from the Rugby
World Cup.
Gillian Phillips: Absolutely. That is the practical answer. The more serious answer
is that I think claimants are just running scared at the moment. Because of Giggs, and John
Terry before that, this is not guaranteed; it is not a right you just have. I suspect that those
from whom you are about to hear are busy working out their next strategy—unless these
are being obtained in such secrecy now that we do not know about them at all—on how to
deal with this. That is where we are. They develop a strategy; we then find out about it and
try to challenge it and come up with some proper legal challenges; and it moves along like
that.
Q845 Lord Dobbs: I take that to be a general answer from the rest of you. I go to
my next question. Mr Price talked about abuses of power; Mr Millar talked about the chilling
effect that the current situation is having on reporters, editors and so forth. For many of us,
the sex life of a footballer is not the fundamental issue on which the freedom of the press
should be based. Can you give me some practical examples of this chilling effect where
newspapers have shied away from publishing what are truly stories about abuses of power
because of the present legal situation?
David Price: I think one has to look at it in a more general way. Every time
something becomes harder to do, there is a disincentive even to explore the possibility of
doing it. One has to look at it in terms of environment. The minute you have an
environment in which it becomes expensive and difficult to argue whether or not publication
of something is legally justified and there is a risk of injunction, inevitably there will be a
chilling effect from that. If you are prepared to invest resources in an investigation and you
have the material, eventually you will be able to publish it, and the privacy laws as they stand
will not stop that if it is what might be called genuine public interest: evidence of an abuse of
power. But I do think it is an oversimplified way of looking at it. Sometimes things come
out in one thing and then another thing comes out. Sometimes you do not know what you
do not know; you find things out. You live in a society where there is a greater flow of
information and therefore that society as a whole is one that will be less prone to abuse of
power or corruption.
Q846 Lord Dobbs: I understand why you are offering a general response, but I did
ask a specific question.
Keith Mathieson: Perhaps I may give an example.
Q847 Lord Dobbs: Yes, please. I am very much interested in practical examples.
Keith Mathieson: I do not know whether it will pass your threshold because it also
involves sex but not footballers. The Fred Goodwin case, in which he was alleged to be
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