Former FIA president Max Mosley had his day in court on Tuesday this week, as he continued his long-standing push to see stricter privacy laws put in place to govern the media's handling of details of aspects of people's lives.
Mosley attended a hearing at the European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday as part of his ongoing campaign for firmer regulations that will force newspapers and other media to warn individuals before publishing details about their private lives.
By forcing the media to disclose private revelations in this way, the individual could then attempt to block the story coming out using court orders.
His campaign began after he won £60,000 of damages at the High Court in London in 2008 from the News of the World newspaper, following the publication of revelations about his own private life.
The gaudy Sunday newspaper published a series of pictures, and even a video, of Mosley enjoying a sadomasochistic role playing session with a number of prostitutes in 2007.
The revelations from the newspaper led to calls for him to resign after the newspaper alleged there to have been a 'Nazi' element to the role play, though the High Court ruled that this was not the case.
And after winning damages from the newspaper, Mosley has now protested the issue in an effort to secure a wholesale change in privacy laws.
His argument in the European Court in Strasbourg on Tuesday was that the laws in the UK need to be tightened in order to allow individuals to challenge the stories before publication.
The court of Human Rights will now consider the case based on Articles 8 and 10 of the Human Rights Act, which protect the right of privacy and the right to freedom of expression respectively.
In a column for the Guardian newspaper published on Tuesday, he argued that no amount of damages secured after the publication of an inaccurate or incorrect story could make up for the damage done by the story in the first place.
"Breach of privacy can be very serious – worse even than theft because once published, no court can make the information private again," the former F1 boss wrote, "Tabloid revelations can cause great pain, even suicide."
He added that: "As things stand, the law is ineffective.
"It cannot prevent even the most outrageously illegal invasions of privacy by the tabloids. If they feel like it, they can ruin lives with impunity.
"The only answer is to compel a newspaper to inform you if it intends to publish your private information."
The case in Strasbourg is being contested by a number of media agencies and organisations, who conversely argue that the proposed changes to the law would impinge on their own freedom of expression.
A verdict from the hearing is not expected until later in the year.
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