British privacy law now rivals libel law in gagging the press

IN 2016 BLOOMBERG, a media giant, published an article about the early stages of a criminal inquiry by a British regulator into an American businessman. The facts were gleaned from a letter Bloomberg had seen, sent by British authorities requesting information from a foreign counterpart. They have never been disputed. But on February 16th the Supreme Court ruled that Bloomberg had invaded the man’s privacy. It confirmed an award of damages for the misuse of private information of £25,000 ($34,000) to the individual, now known only as ZXC. In doing so, it tilted British law further away from freedom of the press and towards privacy rights.