Harry Potter author wins press complaint

Harry Potter the film will be released in November

The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) has upheld a complaint by JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, against OK magazine.

The author complained after OK published photographs of Ms Rowling and her eight-year old daughter on a beach in Mauritius.

All four of Rowling's books have been huge sellers

Ms Rowling said that the photographs were an invasion of her privacy - and a breach of the rule in the newspaper code of practice which bans pictures of children just because their parents are famous.

It is reported that OK magazine has apologised to the author by letter.

Privacy

Ms Rowling has become a world famous figure since the publication of her Harry Potter books - which have now sold more than 100 million copies.

But the author has always fiercely guarded her privacy and that of her daughter, whose picture had never previously been published.

The photographs of Ms Rowling and her daughter were taken with a long lens camera without the author's knowledge, when she and her daughter were on a private hotel beach.

On Tuesday night Ms Rowling's solicitor said that she was delighted by the PCC decision.

BBC media correspondent Nick Higham has commented that the outcome of the case is in marked contrast to that of a complaint by TV newsreader Anna Ford.

When Ms Ford complained to the PCC about pictures of her with her family on a public beach in Majorca she lost - and she failed when she tried to get the courts to overturn the PCC's decision.