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.