News agency loses landmark privacy case at UK Supreme Court

By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s highest court says a business executive who was investigated over suspected fraud had a right to keep his identity private. The Supreme Court ruled that Bloomberg News had breached the businessman’s “reasonable expectation of privacy” with a 2016 story about a U.K. law enforcement probe into possible corruption, bribery and fraud offenses. The ruling follows several lower-court judgments that have strengthened privacy protections in British law. Media groups said the decision would make it harder for journalists to expose crimes by the rich and powerful. Bloomberg News editor-in-chief John Micklethwait said the decision “should frighten every decent journalist in Britain — as well as anybody who cares about justice, the conduct of capitalism or freedom of speech.”