Max Mosley to appeal European court's rejection of prior notification bid

Max Mosley intends to request an appeal of today's European Court of Human Rights ruling against his application to force newspapers to give prior notification to subjects of articles.

Today the Strasbourg Court ruled against the former motor racing boss, concluding that Article 8 of the Convention on Human Rights did not require a legally-binding pre-notification rule, but Mosley will now take his application to the Grand Chamber.

In its judgement the court said that the threat of criminal sanctions or punitive fines for failing to observe any legal requirement would also risk "create a chilling effect which would be felt in the spheres of political reporting and investigative journalism".

In a statement issued through his lawyers Collyer Bristow, Mosley said he was disappointed with the judgement, insisting he felt regulation on what he called a "trade of private information" can be done without inhibiting public interest journalism.

"If a tabloid victim knows what is going on he can seek an injunction. Some do, much to the annoyance of the tabloids. But in a small minority of cases, the paper keeps it secret and the victim knows nothing until the story is out. This leaves the victim with no remedy," Mosley said in the release from his solicitors.

"The private information will never again be private and if he sues and wins, the damages he recovers, plus the costs paid by the newspaper, will be less than the bill from his lawyers. This so-called "shortfall" will leave him out of pocket - in my case, £30,000. A favourable judgement would have allowed this obvious gap in UK law to be closed."

Mosley added that he intends to continue with his application by way of a request to the Grand Chamber and will be discussing the next step with his lawyers this week.

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