CANADIAN SINGER WINS PRIVACY CASE

CANADIAN SINGER WINS PRIVACY CASE

Canadian singer/songwriter LOREENA MCKENNITT has won a privacy case over revelations in a book written by her former employee. MCKennitt was awarded $9,750 (GBP5,000) in damages and an injunction last year (05) after a judge ruled the work by NIEMA ASH - called TRAVELS WITH LOREENA MCKENNITT: MY LIFE AS A FRIEND - breached a duty of confidence. Today (14DEC06) Ash lost her appeal at London's Court of Appeal, despite claiming the information she divulged was "banal and anodyne". Lord Justice BUXTON upheld all of the High Court judge's conclusions that some passages in the book were intrusive, insensitive and distressing, agreeing they violated aspects of the Human Rights Act governing the right to respect for private and family life. Speaking after the court decision, Celtic music star MCKennitt said, "If an aspect of career places one directly in the public eye or if extraordinary events make an ordinary person newsworthy for a time, we still should have the basic human dignity of privacy for our home and family life."