ABSTRACT
While it is well established that Article 8 protects reputation, a defamation action remains the appropriate remedy unless the claimant has, in addition, a reasonable expectation of privacy. The Supreme Court in ZXC v Bloomberg found that information could be characterised as private if it harms reputation providing that such harm is sufficiently serious and impacts on the enjoyment of private life. This is not the test for a reasonable expectation of privacy and results in harm to reputation determining whether the information is private or not, which is in conflict with previous decisions of the Supreme Court. It also enables MPI to colonise defamation law’s territory upsetting the conceptual coherence of those two torts, marginalising the defamation defence of truth and resulting in the inhibition of the scrutiny of public power.
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John Campbell, Misuse of private information and the protection of reputation after ZXC v Bloomberg – Is privacy of information still a requirement?, Journal of Media Law. Published online: 24 December 2025.
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