Leading Article: Reflections on privacy and the 'Mirror'

AS INVASIONS of privacy go, this one was less obviously damaging than most. The Princess of Wales was not caught in a compromising position or overheard making indiscreet remarks. She was photographed in a gymnasium, looking poised and fittingly dressed. Her reputation has not suffered. If anything, it has been enhanced by the wave of public sympathy that has followed publication of the pictures in the Sunday Mirror.

The reputations that have been damaged are those of the newspaper and the gym owner, Bryce Taylor, who took the pictures. Mr Taylor is guilty of a gross breach of trust, the Mirror of breaking the Code of Practice of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC). This states that 'intrusions and enquiries into an individual's private life without his or her consent, including the use of long-lens photography to take pictures of people on private property without their consent, are not generally acceptable and publication can only be justified when in the public interest'.

The point of the code is that it is an attempt by newspapers to regulate themselves. If they demonstrate that they cannot do this effectively, the Government will take on the task. The Mirror has, therefore, done the press a disservice by breaching the code and now by leaving the PCC. It will have stiffened the Government's resolve to introduce legislation on privacy and created a climate of opinion in which the legislation will have an easier passage. Peter Brooke, the Heritage Secretary, confirmed yesterday that new legislation can be expected early next year.

The proposals on which the legislation will be based are worrying, not because there is anything wrong with the principle of protecting privacy, but because they envisage weak protection for newspapers and other media that publish information on individuals in the public interest.

There will always be some imprecision about the line beyond which the private life of a public figure should become public property. Generally, however, that line comes sooner than most public figures would wish. Already Britain's strict laws of libel provide too much protection for ill-doers. If new privacy laws increase that protection the nation will come to regret it. More protection for the Princess of Wales may mean more for less appealing personalities.