Press regulator hints at less privacy protection for publicity-seeking celebs

The PCC, which is a voluntary industry self-regulatory body, has published changes to its voluntary Code of Conduct which governs most national newspapers' behaviour.

In the section on privacy the PCC has added a caveat which could undermine some celebrities' rights to take action under the Code. It implies that celebrities who choose to expose parts of their private lives will have less protection from the Code.

The Code previously said: "Editors will be expected to justify intrusions into any individual's private life without consent". That section now continues: "Account will be taken of the complainant's own public disclosures of information".

The PCC said that the rule change simply made clear the approach it had taken in the past.

"When considering complaints of alleged intrusions into privacy the PCC has traditionally had regard for any relevant previous disclosures by the complainant. That has now been codified," said Ian Beales, secretary of the PCC's Code Committee.

There has been a growing trend for asserting privacy rights in court since the introduction of the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law by the Human Rights Act. The Act guarantees an individual's right to a private and family life.

Celebrities such as Naomi Campbell, JK Rowling and singer Loreena McKennit have successfully gone to court to use the law to protect their or their families' privacy.

Editors are allowed to break parts of the Code if they can demonstrate that their newspapers' actions are in the public interest. Other revisions made to the Code give them greater scope to argue that case.

The Code previously demanded that editors "demonstrate fully how the public interest was served". It now only asks them to assert that they "reasonably believed" that it would be served.

"Whenever the public interest is invoked, the PCC will require editors to demonstrate that they reasonably believed that publication, or journalistic activity undertaken with a view to publication, would be in the public interest," the revised Code says.

"These amendments are intended to strengthen and clarify the Code, for the benefit of both complainants and the press, by incorporating elements that largely reflect embedded PCC jurisprudence or existing industry best practice," said Beales.