Judgment Approved by the court for handing down.
Ali & Aslam v Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd
110.
We see no basis on which it can properly be said that the judge failed properly to
consider the impact on the Claimants’ children.
111.
We turn to Ground 1. Here the stark point advanced is that the awards of £10,000
each simply do not represent an adequate response to the scale and nature of the
publication. The figures have been set out more than once above: nearly 10 million
views over a 20 month period. Mr Tomlinson does not submit that a simple “scale”
can be applied to such damages awards, but does submit that the award “represents an
award of £277 per Claimant in respect of each broadcast to a quarter of a million
viewers”. The judge had accepted that the Claimants sustained real distress from the
broadcast and in particular that the Second Claimant had been particularly troubled.
The judge should have made a higher award to the Second Claimant to reflect her
greater level of upset, but did not do so.
112.
The Claimants rely on two or three salient points drawn from the decision in Gulati.
Gulati was concerned with phone hacking, and therefore the facts are very different
from this case. As Mann J held in that case:
“damages in a privacy case should compensate not merely for
distress (or some similar emotion) but should also compensate
(if appropriate) for the loss of privacy or autonomy as such
arising out of the infringement by hacking (or other
mechanisms) as such, which could include as some to
compensate for damage to dignity or standing so far as that was
meaningful in this context and was not already within the
distress element”. (Headnote 17)
113.
Mann J also observed that:
“the relevant caselaw did not bind the court to take either a
wrapped-up approach, or a divided-up approach to the award of
damages. It demonstrated that the court could, and should, take
in appropriate to achieve the objective of compensating the
Claimant properly and fairly for the wrong sustained. In some
cases a global award would be appropriate to that end; in others
a more divided-up approach would be appropriate.” (Headnote
22)
114.
Although “as a starting point each article should be treated separately in terms of an
award of damages” the risk of double counting had to be avoided and:
“the effect of the articles was likely to have been cumulative, so
some later distress built on that already caused… the way of
dealing with this was to make sure that any particular sums
were adjusted appropriately and to make sure that the overall
sum appeared to be proportionate and a proper reflection of the
overall pattern of wrongdoing.” (Headnote 24, paragraphs
156/7)
115.
The Defendant emphasises that the judge correctly directed himself to the principles
set down in Gulati and took them into account. No “wrong principle of law” has been
Seleccionar párrafo de destino3
Conectar a un párrafo
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Añadir a la tabla de contenidos