Formula One boss Max Mosley has told the Guardian he thinks there was a conspiracy behind the News of the World story revealing his involvement in a sado masochistic sex orgy.
And he revealed that he has set up a fund to allow the less well-off to sue newspapers for invasion of privacy.
In his first press interview since winning a record £60,000 privacy payout from the News of the World in July – Mosley told Angelique Chrisafis that he believes what he did was “funny”.
He does not comment on the rights of wrongs of committing adultery over a 45-year period.
Mosley is currently going to the European Court of Human Rights in a bid to change the law and give people like himself the opportunity to gain injunctions before publication which would stop their privacy being infringed.
He says:
“The government has got something to answer for, for allowing this Murdoch culture.”
On the “party” that was the subject of the NoW story he says:
“I mean, in the end, I did it, and it is funny. Sex is funny. Most people’s sex lives, if you had the whole detail, would be quite funny.”
He also reveals that he has enlisted former Metropolitan Police chief John Stevens to find out who in Formula One “stitched him up” over the NoW story.
“I think it’s undoubtedly related to motor racing, it’s just a question of who. I’ve got some shrewd ideas. I’ve got my eye on them, let’s put it like that.”
Explaining why he wants to change the law Mosley says:
“To live in a society where the rules are made by the [tabloid] editors, I think, would horrify most people. Particularly as it’s very one-sided. They never hesitate, for example, to use completely illegal means to get information, such as bribing people with access to the police computer. So they can’t talk about morality, they are immoral themselves.”
“People say, ‘But this will cast a chill on investigative journalism.’ Well no, because … the judge isn’t going to suppress that which should not be suppressed. But he will probably suppress the revelation of people’s most private lives for no better purpose than to sell newspapers.”
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