'Cheriegate' press complaint upheld

Peter Foster is currently living in Australia

The Press Complaints Commission has upheld a complaint against the Sun newspaper by Peter Foster, the man at the centre of the "Cheriegate" affair.

The watchdog said the paper was wrong to print transcripts of private telephone conversations between Foster and his mother.

It rejected its claim that publication of the calls was in the public interest.

Foster, a convicted Australian conman, was the focus of intense media scrutiny last year when he helped the prime minister's wife buy two flats in Bristol.

Mrs Blair became embroiled in a highly damaging political row, and was forced into a public apology for her misjudgement in getting involved with Foster - the boyfriend of her lifestyle guru Carole Caplin.

'Unacceptable exposure'

The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) said on Tuesday that eavesdropping on private conversations and publishing the transcripts was one of the most serious forms of physical intrusion into privacy.

It upheld Foster's complaint that the Sun had breached clause eight of its code of practice, which deals with the use of listening devices.

The clause says: "Journalists must not obtain or publish material obtained by using clandestine listening devices or by intercepting private telephone conversations."

The Blairs bought the flats as their son is at university in Bristol

The PCC said it expected a very strong public interest justification for breaching the clause, and the defence offered by the Sun did not meet this.

The watchdog said: "For the commission to have rejected this complaint would be unacceptably to expose all those involved in high profile news stories to unjustified physical intrusion in a way that undermined the tough protection available under the code."

At the time of the furore over Mrs Blair's involvement with Mr Foster, questions were raised again about press coverage of public figures' private lives.

The privacy clause of the PCC's code of practice states: "Everyone is entitled to respect for his or her private and family life, home, health and correspondence. A publication will be expected to justify intrusions into any individual's private life without consent."

But this is tempered by the rules on public interest which means that journalists can run a story if, for example, it results in "detecting or exposing crime or a serious misdemeanour" or "preventing the public from being misled by some statement or action of an individual or organisation".