'Daily Mirror' wins appeal over Campbell drug addiction exposé

The Mirror won its long-running court battle with the supermodel Naomi Campbell yesterday after a judge ruled that the exposure of her drug addiction was a subject of legitimate public interest.

The media immediately trumpeted the ruling as an important victory for press freedom and a significant set-back for celebrities who claim a special right to privacy.

Miss Campbell now faces an estimated £750,000 legal bill after three Court of Appeal judges upheld The Mirror's challenge to an earlier High Court ruling which had found in the supermodel's favour. The newspaper had contested the £3,500 damages award and the decision that it must pay Miss Campbell's legal costs.

The Master of the Rolls, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, said the February 2001 report about the model's drug addiction was justified in the public interest.

The model had claimed that she felt "shocked, angry, betrayed and violated" by the article, which included a photograph of her leaving a Narcotics Anonymous meeting in the King's Road, Chelsea.

Lord Phillips described Miss Campbell as an internationally famous fashion model. He said that she courted, rather than shunned, publicity and had gone out of her way to tell the media that in contrast to other models, she did not take drugs, stimulants or tranquillisers.

Lord Phillips, together with Lords Justices Chadwick and Keene, refused Miss Campbell permission to appeal to the House of Lords, although her lawyers said they would petition the Law Lords for a hearing.

Marcus Partington, head of Mirror Group Newspapers' legal department, said that the ruling established that "if you lie to the public through the media, particularly if you lie for commercial advantage, then the media will be entitled to correct that false impression and will be given considerable latitude by the courts in how they do that".