Privacy, defamation and ZXC v Bloomberg

ABSTRACT The significance of the Supreme Court decision in ZXC v Bloomberg extends well beyond recognition of the ‘starting point’ that, up to the point of charge, a person who is subject to police investigation has a reasonable expectation of privacy in respect of information about it. The Supreme Court's willingness to use the privacy tort to protect a claimant's reputational interests (based largely on European Court of Human Rights jurisprudence) moves the misuse of private information action firmly into defamation’s domain. This article examines the potential ramifications of the change in relationship between the two actions and shows how measures like the new exception for foreseeable loss of reputation (recognised in ZXC itself) can help preserve essential protections for true, but reputationally-damaging, allegations.