Hattix

Do some people really understand what they’re actually saying? Relating to Max Mosley’s successful defamation trial where the tabloid rag News of The World was deemed to have unreasonably invaded Mr. Mosley’s privacy, we get the Christians jumping in.

Lord Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury, considers the ruling to be a dangerous precedent and uses the argument of “free speech” while giving an appeal to passion fallacy, claiming that without “public debate or democratic scrutiny” the courts have “created a wholly new privacy law”. You then realise where his agenda actually lies when his next line is “I am deeply sad that public morality is the second victim of this legal judgement”.

He bumbles on “Unspeakable and indecent behaviour, whether in public or in private, is no longer significant under this ruling”.

Is he even paying attention to what he’s saying? Well, the answer is no. The ruling was made because we have privacy laws created by “public debate or democratic scrutiny” and also we have laws against Lord Carey’s “unspeakable and indecent behaviour” in public, this ruling does nothing to those laws.

It’s important here to note that the press can legally invade an individual’s privacy if it can be shown such invasion was in the public interest. Breaching the privacy of a corporate executive to expose corruption is in the public interest. Doing so with the head of a sporting organisation’s private life, which has nothing to do with his public activities as head of that organisation, is not in the public interest. This is the line which the News of The World illegally crossed.

In his ruling, according to the laws of the land, Mr Justice Eady said Mr Mosley could expect privacy for consensual “sexual activities (albeit unconventional)”.

It leaves one wondering, however, exactly what constitutes “immoral”? According to Lord Carey, a spot of light bondage and roleplay is “immoral” and right away I can point out quite a few people in my circle of friends who’re into that kind of thing, would I ever consider them immoral? No, they’re the nicest folk you’re ever likely to meet. One of them, indeed, has spent hours of her time and incalculable amounts of effort raising funds for cancer charities.

By wanting to shackle what consenting adults can and cannot do behind closed doors, Lord Carey is the one guilty of immorality, the highest form of immorality is that of demanding obedience and forcing control where none is necessary.