Gerry McCann, the father of missing girl Madeleine, and motorsport boss Max Mosley are to appear before MPs next week to give their views on libel law and privacy.
Mosley, the FIA chairman at the centre of a tabloid sting operation last year, has been called to give evidence on Tuesday morning to the cross-party culture, media and sport select committee, as part of its wide-ranging investigation into press standards.
Mosley won £60,000 in compensation from the News of the World last July after the Sunday tabloid published photos and a video of what it claimed was a “sick Nazi orgy” with five prostitutes.
High court judge Mr Justice Eady said Mosley had a “reasonable expectation of privacy in relation to sexual activities” and said there was no evidence of Nazi re-enactment.
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The sum awarded was the highest ever given in a UK privacy case, dwarfing the £14,600 awarded to Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones from Hello magazine.
Mosley is now asking the European Court of Human Rights to strengthen privacy laws – and make it a requirement for newspapers to approach the subject of a story before publication.
Gerry McCann – the father of Madeleine, who disappeared on holiday in Portugal in 2007 – will give evidence to the select committee on Tuesday afternoon.
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Gerry and his wife Kate accepted a £550,000 libel payout from Express Newspapers last April for a series of more than 100 articles which Mr Justice Eady said were “seriously defamatory”.
The Daily Express, Daily Star and their Sunday sister titles all published prominent front-page apologies for the untrue allegations, which the McCanns’ lawyer said suggested they “were responsible for the death of Madeleine”.
Gerry McCann will be joined at next week’s select committee by his spokesman, former BBC journalist Clarence Mitchell, and Adam Tudor from Carter Ruck solicitors, which handled the Express libel claim.
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