The Press Complaints Commission have today
rejected a claim by J.K. Rowling that her privacy had been invaded by the Daily Mirror, Daily Record and the Scottish Mail on Sunday who all reported on a property she'd recently bought. The house in question was said to be close to the estate she already owns in Perthshire, Scotland. The articles were accompanied by pictures of Rowling's home, her new purchase and the surrounding area.
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Rowling, through her solicitors Schillings, said that the articles, published in October last year, invaded her privacy by identifying the location of her Perthshire home. She complained that there had been a breach of clause 3 of the PCC code of practice.
In 2005 they upheld a complaint that stated that information provided by the Daily Mirror could identify the address of her home in London, England.
As the more recent stories did not name roads or streets or towns, the complaint was not upheld.
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The PCC also said the name of the property, the county where it was situated and the town it was near were already in the public domain.
"While the commission appreciated that the complainant is someone who guards her privacy closely - and clearly objected to the attention given by the press to her property purchase - it did not consider that there was anything in these articles that contravened the code or the commission's guidelines," the commission said.
"Restraint upon further publication of the information would, in the commission's view, serve no purpose," it added.