Letter: Lessons of Michael Jackson's addiction

Sir: So publishing sneaked photographs of a healthy young woman is the end of civilisation as we know it, but not a whimper is heard when a national newspaper offers a reward for information on the whereabouts of a broken, ill man perhaps coming to terms with the end of his career; scrums of photographers maraud around psychiatric hospitals trying to sneak pictures; and your own newspaper finds it 'curious' (front page, 16 November) that Michael Jackson's lawyers 'want him to get better' and think privacy may help.

What possible public interest defence could be mounted against a charge of breaching Michael Jackson's privacy? Isn't hounding the sick the very stuff of 'dabbling in other people's souls'?

Yours faithfully,

ROBIN COOKE-HURLE

London, SW11