Cliff Richard and the BBC

Written by David Fletcher 26 Jul 2018
Cliff Richard and the BBC

The BBC has to pay Sir Cliff Richard £850,000 to cover legal costs, following his privacy case against them. He had already been awarded £210,000 damages when the court ruled that the BBC infringed his privacy when reporting a 2014 police raid on his home. Sir Cliff was never charged or arrested. The BBC is also going to pay £315,000 to South Yorkshire Police for legal costs. However the BBC is seeking leave to appeal against the judgment, and wants to challenge Sir Cliff’s right to privacy while a suspect in a police investigation - trumping the broadcaster's right to freedom of expression to publish his name and cover the raid. Lord Patten, former chairman of the BBC Trust, said the BBC would be ‘crazy’ to appeal against the High Court's ruling in this case, saying they should ‘swallow hard, say they made a mistake, apologise, as they have, to Cliff Richard and not to do it again’. See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-44884477/cliff-richard-bbc-would-be-crazy-to-appeal-lord-patten

Additional Info

  • Pray: for Sir Cliff’s healing, and for the BBC to draw a line under the experience and move on. (Psalm 119:32)