Steve Foster examines press intrusion into celebrity privacy & the decision in Kaye v Robertson
The recent death of Gorden Kaye, the actor famous for playing René Artois, the French café owner in ‘Allo ‘Allo! , has caused a good deal of sadness to those who recall that series with fondness. But in legal circles Kaye will be remembered for his part in the protracted development of privacy law in England and Wales, and the famous and unsuccessful action brought by him against a red top newspaper for gross intrusion into his private life. That case sparked off a legal and public campaign for greater protection of individual privacy and we now have a law which provides a remedy for unreasonable intrusions into individual privacy perpetrated by the press.
The case of Kaye v Robertson
In Kaye v Robertson [1991] FSR 62, (1990) Times, 21 March, Kaye was lying critically ill in hospital and was interviewed by a reporter from a newspaper who had sneaked into the hospital room. At first instance he had received an injunction restraining the paper from publishing the interview and accompanying
