Sex, bugs and videotapes:the private lives of public figures deserve more protection from the press

Summary: Are you entitled to your private life? Or do you think the News of the World has every right to make it public? Should you just take it on the chin when prying newshounds inform the world of whatever details, true or false, they rake up on your private life, leaving you to clear up the inaccuracies only after your reputation has been trashed? That would appear to be the case in Britain, given that - unlike say in the USA or France - there is no right to privacy here, only a “right to confidence”, and the tabloid press have allegedly been tapping the phones of prominent figures for years. But Max Mosley and many who support him think this is wrong, which is why he is applying to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for a change in the law that would make it compulsory for journalists to inform people before publishing private information about them. Has he got a good case? Or is he making an outrageous assault on press freedom