In less than a decade privacy has moved from the outer limits of media law to its centre. The privacy injunction has replaced the ‘gagging writ’ as the media bogeyman threatening investigative journalism and proper reporting. While the number of defamation actions continues to decline, privacy (and phone hacking) cases are on everyone’s lips.
The new Law Society Privacy Law Handbook is the first book devoted exclusively to this area. This is perhaps surprising. Other authors may have been held back by the furious pace of development of the law – in my own case this has certainly been the excuse given to my publishers.
