Invasion of privacy 'in a big way'

Mr Justice Mann really didn't like the coverage of the South Yorkshire Police raid on Sir Cliff's apartment in Sunningdale....

"The coldly stated facts of the content and form of the broadcasts appear in the narrative set out in this judgment. That narrative does not really do justice to the quality of the broadcasts. They were, as I have said, presented with a significant degree of breathless sensationalism. The story was the main point in the news - there was nothing wrong with that in itself, but it did lend a certain urgency to the report. In some broadcasts it was accompanied by a ticker running across the bottom of the screen emphasising the story and maintaining its presence throughout the bulletin. Mr [Dan] Johnson, and in some broadcasts another journalist, were broadcasting from outside the property. There was an attempt to lend drama to the broadcast by showing cars entering the property, and the helicopter shots added more, somewhat false, drama. In evidence there was an attempt by Mr [Gary] Smith to justify the use of the helicopter as providing evidence as to what was going on inside, as if some form of verification was necessary or appropriate. I find that that was a spurious justification. The helicopter shots did not verify or evidence anything particularly useful or controversial that needed evidencing. They were moving pictures of the property, of seven or eight people in plain clothes walking to a building, the same people walking back to their cars and fuzzy shots of two or three people in Sir Cliff’s flat. It may have made for more entertaining and attention-grabbing journalism. It may be justifiable or explicable on the footing that TV is a visual medium and pictures are part of what it does. It did not, however, add any particularly useful information. Mr [Jonathan] Munro also referred to the helicopter shots as being justifiable on the basis that it enabled the public to see a police operation going on, in relation to which there was a genuine public interest. That is more of a justification, but I still consider that the main purpose of utilising the helicopter was to add sensationalism and emphasis to the scoop of which the BBC was so proud. The BBC viewed this as a big story, and presented it in a big way. This was also manifested in other aspects of the coverage - the coverage from Portugal, pointless though it turned out to be, lent an urgency to the presentation of the story.

"In short, and insofar as it is relevant under this head, the BBC went in for an invasion of Sir Cliff’s privacy rights in a big way."