Naomi Campbell, The Daily Mirror And The ECHR

A freedom of expression complaint by the British Daily Mirror newspaper, involving the supermodel Naomi Campbell, comes before European Court of Human Rights judges on 18 January.

MGN Limited v. United Kingdom (no. 39401/04)

The case concerns two complaints brought by MGN Limited, the publisher of The Daily Mirror, a national daily newspaper in the United Kingdom. In the first, MGN Limited contests the national courts’ finding against it that it breached the privacy of a well-known model, Naomi Campbell, following articles published in February 2001 in which it divulged details about her drug addiction therapy. In the second, MGN Limited complains that, following that decision, it was obliged to pay unreasonably high court fees on account of a “conditional fee arrangement” and, notably, “success fee” for which domestic law allowed. The applicant company relies on Article 10 (freedom of expression).