Max Mosley has launched a chilling new attack on Press freedom, with an extraordinary legal bid to scrub records of his notorious German-themed orgy from history.
The former Formula One boss also wants to restrict reporting on the £3.8million his family trust spends bankrolling the controversial Press regulator Impress.
He has taken legal action against a range of newspapers – the Daily Mail, The Times, The Sun and at least one other national newspaper – demanding they delete any references to his sadomasochistic sex party and never mention it again.
The orgy, which involved Mr Mosley and five prostitutes, was exposed by the News of the World in 2008 and became the subject of one of the biggest privacy trials in history.
However, in a move that could have devastating consequences both for Press freedom and for historical records, Mr Mosley is now using data protection laws to try to force newspapers to erase any mention of it.
Max Mosley (pictured) has taken legal action against a range of newspapers – the Daily Mail, The Times, The Sun and at least one other national newspaper – demanding they delete any references to his German-themed sadomasochistic sex party and never mention it again
And it is not the only extraordinary demand Mr Mosley – the son of wartime fascist leader Oswald Mosley – is making.
He has also insisted that the newspapers stop making references to the fact he bankrolls Impress – the highly controversial, state-approved Press regulator.
Yesterday, MPs warned against data protection laws being used to trample Press freedoms.
The laws were drawn up to tackle misuse of personal information by mail order and credit card companies, but are increasingly being used against the Press.
Conservative MP Bill Cash said: ‘The freedom of the Press is paramount and it would be perverse to allow historical records to be removed on the basis of data protection.
‘If data protection can be used to wipe out historical records, then the consequences would be dramatic.’
The orgy, which involved Mr Mosley (pictured) and five prostitutes, was exposed by the News of the World in 2008 and became the subject of one of the biggest privacy trials in history
John Whittingdale, a Tory former Culture Secretary, said: ‘Data protection is an important principle for the protection of citizens. However, it must not be used to restrict the freedom of the Press.’
Mr Mosley’s legal bid uses a combination of previous rulings and data protection laws to try to argue that he should be able to scrub uncomfortable information from the annals of history – and suppress public debate about his relationship with Impress.
If he won, it would set a far-reaching precedent – potentially allowing people to wipe controversial events in their past from the historical record, and even prohibiting references to public judgments of the courts.
It comes as MPs prepare to debate a highly controversial amendment to the new Data Protection Bill, under which any newspaper which is not a member of a state-approved regulator would face paying the costs of any action like Mr Mosley’s – even if they won their case.
The only newspaper regulator which has official approval under the Government’s royal charter is Impress, which is almost entirely funded by a charity financed by Mr Mosley.
The Daily Mail and the vast majority of other newspapers are regulated by the independent regulator IPSO.
In his action, the multimillionaire racing tycoon claimed that the Daily Mail’s owner, Associated Newspapers, had breached data protection ‘principles’ in 34 articles published since 2013 – including many opinion pieces defending the freedom of the Press.
These principles are designed to stop companies from ‘excessive processing’ of people’s sensitive personal data or from holding on to people’s details for longer than necessary, and come with exemptions for journalism that is in the public interest.
However, Mr Mosley argued that the data protection exemptions do not apply to mentions of his orgy, because the judge presiding over his privacy case against the News of the World ruled that the exposé was not in the public interest.
Pictured: Max Mosley, the son of wartime fascist leader Oswald Mosley, at the Silverstone Grand Prix
Mr Mosley famously won £60,000 in damages from the now defunct tabloid.
The judge ruled that the orgy was private because it was not ‘Nazi’ themed – as the News of the World had claimed.
In his legal action this week, the racing tycoon’s lawyers used another branch of data protection law to prevent future reporting of his funding agreement with Impress and to erase it from previous articles.
Mr Mosley has provided £3.8million toward the regulator’s running costs, funnelling the money via two charities.
However, his lawyers have demanded that the Mail removes references to the regulator being ‘financed’, ‘funded’, ‘bankrolled’ by, ‘financially reliant’ on or ‘in the pocket’ of Mr Mosley.
They claim that it is inaccurate to make such claims, because a judicial review ruled that the elaborate set-up he uses to funnel money to Impress means the regulator can still be independent.
Mr Mosley’s legal bid is the latest in a string of attempts he has made to muzzle the Press since the News of the World exposé.
He has donated £500,000 to Tom Watson, the deputy Labour leader and culture spokesman. Mr Watson is such a fierce critic of newspapers he has even co-authored a damning book – Dial M For Murdoch – about Rupert Murdoch, the News of the World’s former owner.
Mr Mosley has fought an unsuccessful legal campaign to force newspapers to warn people before publishing details about their lives, in order that they can seek an injunction to stop it.
The former Formula One boss (pictured with Hugh Grand and Steve Coogan during the Leveson Inquiry) also wants to restrict reporting on the £3.8million his family trust spends bankrolling the controversial Press regulator Impress