One human right should not be able to extinguish another human right

The Human Rights Act (1998) has a big fan base. In legal, political and celebrity circles there is much enthusiasm for it. Yet the law is not giving us the rights and freedoms we need, because each right can be played off against another. We’ve been losing our human rights in the name of human rights.

In the mid-nineties I began chronicling and campaigning for a right to free speech while challenging the Human Rights Act. I couldn’t understand why Britain, a country renowned for its tolerance, was clamping down on the right to free speech (Article 10) including what newspapers published, in the name of a right to privacy (Article 8). The reason was said to be the rise of stories concerning the private lives of public figures. But British newspapers have a long-held, international reputation for publishing such stories. The Human Rights Act was supposed to protect the right to free speech, but how is it possible that the same Act that champions free speech was now being used to censor people?