Cliff Richard High Court Case

I noticed an opinion article in the Sun That was talking about how it will damage all the media if Sir Cliff was to win his case. It was headlined - secret arrests will occur if Cliff wins. So it will be very interesting to see their reaction if Sir Cliff wins.

Yes, this is one where the need to back the BBC.

I don't think secret arrests are a bad thing necessarily. The number of careers and reputations that have been ruined by allegations which prove to be unfounded, there is a balance to be struck between public interest and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

However arrests in secret are also what happens in dictatorships where people 'disappear'. There are very good reasons to keep things transparently in the public domain.

However in this case Sir Cliff Richard wasn't ever arrested was he?

Surely here the issue is that the police notified a national broadcaster ahead of the event, and before you mention drugs bust on dealers houses and the like they are aforded annonimity if images are shown complete with blurred house numbers. This must be an invasion of privacy or am I really missing something?
BTW newspapers have a lot the gain and loose by this - they can knock the BBC and continue to practise their 'skills'...
I suggest if you've not done so read Nick Davies (sp?) book about the phone hacking scandal.

Invasion of Privacy is quite a tricky thing to define though. We haven't, historically, had many privacy laws in the UK. My understanding is that most current privacy law is based on interpretation of Human Rights legislation not specific privacy rights.

The verdict of this case will have bizarre press reactions. The press wont want privacy laws but their readers will ( but only for people like Cliff.) And if he loses the public will consider it an corrupt decision I suspect while the press wont mind too much. So how will their editorialize in favour of a likely victory for Sir Cliff while secretly hating the changes.
I still cant see Fran Unworth surviving - the Mail will force her out either way. And possibly even Tony Hall. And the BBC will announce no more use of the helicopter for a while even during big news stories.

The way BBC Management politics works I would imagine the HLRP at BBC Yorkshire will be in the firing line, especially as her chief supporter & ally Harding is no longer there. I'm sure there are a few queuing up for the job as its quite prestigious job being a double region with a good budget.

How involved was she in the the reporting? Don't think she is well known enough to get the press wanting her sacked which is what I suspect will happen to Unsworth and Hall .

Absolutely Brekkie. Which is why I really hope the white wig in charge of hearing this case, throws it out, finds in favour of the BBC, gives Sir Cliff no grounds to appeal, and gets him to pay the BBC's legal costs.

A fair outcome to a totally needless case brought by a deluded has-been whose legal team had to come up with a series of over hysterical statements to keep this one beat narrative going.
Reputational damage - balls.
Career damage - balls.
No public interest - balls.

Whoa there! Been reading the Daily Fail lately?
Simple question to Hatton Cross:
If you had a police raid on your home with live media of the event would you be happy?

If the BBC loses, it'll be the helicopter coverage that did it for them. There's absolutely no way anyone is going to convince me that if the police have received allegations of a crime carried out by a well known celebrity, and they choose to investigate those allegations, any media organisation doesn't have every right to report that news. But flying a helicopter outside that celebrity's window, while coppers are rummaging through his knicker drawer, is somewhat problematic.

I'm sure if the BBC loses, the Corporation will go into full meltdown mode, like they did with the Hutton Inquiry and the Savile affair. Heads will roll. Probably not the right heads, but heads will roll nonetheless.