Celebrities, The Royal Family, privacy, and the law

In this post, Professor Robin Callender Smith from QMUL's School of Law, discusses his forthcoming book on celebrities and privacy law. My introduction to media law - back in 1966 - was not auspicious. I was about to complete my full-year pre-entry course for journalists, the second one ever to be run at Harlow Technical College in Essex. Then there were no university degrees or diplomas in journalism or media studies. Before Harlow, the three-year trade apprenticeship training for journalists involved correspondence courses and night school classes in shorthand, local government and newspaper law. I managed, quite comprehensively (because of arrogant inattention), to fail the newspaper law exam. I had to re-take it before my apprenticeship on the Eastern Daily Press (EDP) could begin.