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Media broadcast of CCTV footage violates human rights

01 January 2003

On 28 January 2003 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that a local authority who captured a suicide attempt on its CCTV system and then released the footage to newspapers and television companies violated the individual's right to privacy (Article 8 ECHR). In August 1995, Geoffrey Peck had attempted suicide on Brentwood High Street, Essex, by trying to slash his wrists with a kitchen knife. He was severely depressed after losing his job and learning that his partner and mother of his daughter had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Police responded after a CCTV operator alerted them to the incident. Brentwood Council then released the footage to the media in order to promote the benefits of CCTV, resulting in several local newspaper articles, a feature in CCTV News magazine and television broadcasts of the footage on Anglia Television (audience 350,000) and the BBC's "Crime Beat" programme (audience 9.2 million). Despite token gestures to mask Mr Pecks face and conceal his identity, he was easily recognised by friends and relatives.
The ECHR also ruled that Mr Peck's right to an effective domestic legal remedy under Article 13 had been breached. In 1997 the British High Court ruled that the council was within its rights to release the footage and a subsequent request for leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal was rejected. UK judges have resisted the attempt to carve out a privacy law based on a reasoned interpretation of Article 8, ECHR, though it is hoped (perhaps naively) that the European ruling could usher in new privacy regulations in respect to CCTV.
Guardian 29.1.03; Times 3.2.03