The tabloid newspaper had printed details of a private S&M sex party attended by Mosley, claiming – falsely – that it had Nazi overtones. Since the story ran and the resulting court case, Mosley has been open and frank about his interest in and enthusiasm for sadomasochistic practices and tells the Guardian that he has no intention of stopping. (Good for him!)
According to the interview, “his greatest sense of injustice is against the tabloid culture, for the invasion of privacy that he says devastated his family”:
To live in a society where the rules are made by the [tabloid] editors, I think, would horrify most people. Particularly as it’s very one-sided. They never hesitate, for example, to use completely illegal means to get information, such as bribing people with access to the police computer. So they can’t talk about morality, they are immoral themselves.
The interview also reveals that he has defamation and privacy cases – some of which are criminal proceedings – in Germany, Italy and France, and is targeting the British government at the human rights court in Strasbourg, proposing a law to force editors to contact a subject before printing, which would give them a chance to seek a court injunction to stop publication.
People say, “But this will cast a chill on investigative journalism.” Well no, because . . . the judge isn’t going to suppress that which should not be suppressed. But he will probably suppress the revelation of people’s most private lives for no better purpose than to sell newspapers.
To this end, he has set up a fund for less well-off victims of intrusion of privacy to help them bring cases against newspapers.
In the current issue of G&LH, Diesel Balaam discusses the Max Mosley–News of the World case and reflects on our attitudes to consensual sadomasochism.
I'm not all suprised by the press. Personally, he has the right to have sex the way he wants it.
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