Human Rights Act must be changed, says ex-watchdog

The Human Rights Act should be amended urgently to end the "shambles" of judges gagging newspapers over the private lives of celebrities, the former head of the press watchdog said today.

In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, Lord Wakeham says the "intolerable" rash of privacy injunctions granted by the courts was an "inevitable" consequence of the Act, which was passed by the Labour government.

Jack Straw, then home secretary, ignored warnings that the legislation, which became law in 1998, would "create a general law of privacy" by giving judges the power to decide what the public should and should not know, he adds.

Lord Wakeham chaired the Press Complaints Commission from 1995 to 2001.