Broadcaster Mike Hosking's loss was free speech's gain, Commonwealth Press Union New Zealand chairman Gavin Ellis said today.
"It's a victory for free speech," Ellis said of yesterday's ruling in the Appeal Court ending Hosking's prolonged battle to stop New Idea magazine publishing photos of his daughters.
The CPU wanted to comment
on the matter because it feared if the action were successful, litigants could apply the law to stop publication of stories that they did not like.
Editors had to balance the public's right to know and the right to privacy.
The editors of New Idea were right not to publish the photos of the twins, said Mr Ellis.
"There was no good reason to publish those pictures to my mind. But that's a decision for an editor," he told National Radio.
Five Court of Appeal judges unanimously dismissed the appeal of Hosking and his estranged wife, Marie, against a High Court decision allowing New Idea to publish pictures of Mrs Hosking pushing twins Ruby and Bella in a stroller in an Auckland street.
The photo was taken in December 2002 when the twins were 18 months old.
Ellis, who is editor-in-chief of the New Zealand Herald, said he sympathised with the Hoskings and would not have published the photos.
The question was whether the press had the right to take photos in public.
"In law, you have to cover all eventualities, and if the price for protecting those children in those circumstances is the prohibition of taking photographs or filming in public then that's too high a price to pay for the public good."
If New Idea's editors had published the photos "they would stand trial in the court of public opinion".
Pacific Magazines general manager Don Hope said yesterday the company, which publishes New Idea, had decided six months ago not to publish the photos.
The public needed greater clarity on this area of law, Ellis said.
Most actions on privacy, which Hosking had claimed, came under breach of confidence actions.
The rulings recognised that the law was difficult to apply in some circumstances.
"What this judgment has done ... is it's given a name to a range of existing remedies.
"It's more a matter of process than a new form of law, a new form of protection. It's just makes it a lot clearer -- the means that are available."
- NZPA
