Victory could clamp press in ‘chains’

MEDIA lawyers said yesterday Max Mosley’s victory against the News of the World would “chain” legitimate investigative journalism.

Mark Stephens, of law firm Finers Stephens Innocent, said the rich and powerful could try to use the case as a precedent to bring questionable claims against media organisations as a way of stifling negative coverage of them.

The ruling could also signal a change of direction for tabloid investigations, he added, with newspapers moving away from the traditional kiss-and-tell.

“I think the spanking Mosley has given the News of the World will clamp the rest of the investigative media — the legitimate investigative media — in chains,” he said.

“Mr Justice Eady in his considered judgment has effectively said there are no circumstances when cameras are allowed in the bedroom — there is no public interest in that.”

In future, newspapers are more likely to focus their investigative work on drugs and immigration rather than sex and titillation, he said.

The judge’s ruling that there was no evidence to support the claims of a Nazi theme to the sadomasochistic roleplay in which Mosley indulged opened the door for further libel actions, Stephens added.

“That is the ding-ding bell for round two, where the media outlets who reported that it was Nazi-themed can be sued for libel,” he said.