When a fashion blogger was invited to a party at Nick Candy’s penthouse, then published photos on his blog, he must have known he was going to create a stir
When fashion blogger Charlie Porter was invited to a party at Nick Candy and Holly Valance’s One Hyde Park penthouse, then took photos and published them on his blog, he must have known he was going to create a stir.
The photos went viral and much hilarity was had at the monogrammed napkins, gold sink in the black marble bathroom and plastic topiary on the terrace, but Candy has had the last laugh: Porter took down first the pictures and then the whole article.
While this might seem like suppression of a harmless if embarrassing prank or an overreaction by Nick Candy, one top privacy lawyer has told Spear’s that it was inevitable as the Candys’ privacy had been invaded.
The lawyer, who has acted for celebrities and HNWs, said: ‘It’s quite right too. It’s a private party – you invite people into your private residence, but you don’t give them permission to publish photos of what they find.’
According to European law, as seen in the Naomi Campbell case when she was photographed coming out of a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, if you have an expectation of privacy – whether it’s leaving an NA session or walking down the street, let alone at a party in your own house – publishing photos will be an invasion of that privacy.
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But what about if a non-celebrity goes to a non-celebrity friend’s party and posts pictures on Facebook – is that an invasion? ‘It possibly is.’ However, if they’re not famous, they’re less likely to mind. ‘No-one’s going to be interested in my party. But because it’s Nick Candy and a fashion blogger…’
It seems that the more interesting the party, the less right you have to publish photos of it. How unfair!
The lawyers adds that bloggers and others on the internet don’t always realise that the law applies to them because they are operating in what feels like an unconstrained medium. As the defamation writs going out to anyone who implied on Twitter that Lord McAlpine was a paedophile suggest, however, the internet is very much within the law’s grasp.
PS: Perhaps it will be Porter who’ll be laughing longest: he replaced the blog with a video of Holly Valance singing Kiss Kiss, her only hit single.
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