Filmmaker Chris Atkins has caught three British tabloids The Sunday Mirror, News of the World and People, in an attempt to purchase medical records of such celebrities as actor Hugh Grant and film director Guy Ritchie. Video footage has been revealed. It is a potential violation of Data Protection Act (DPA), privacy law in the UK.
A fourth tabloid declined; The Sunday Express, in refusing to meet with Atkins, who was posing as an administrative nurse in a fictitious cosmetic surgery clinic, told him that his proposal was “legal minefield” because it went against the code of practice of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), which is the industry’s self-regulating body.
“We wanted to do a test to see how they would react,” Atkins told Reuters. “It is just showing the public what goes on behind the stories that they pay for every day.”
Reuters further reports that The Sunday Mirror proposed to pay 3,000 pounds ($4,900) for every story published.
Source: British Tabloids Caught Out By Filmmaker’s Hoaxes
The Guardian in noting that the documentary, Starsuckers, will open at the London Film Festival, reveals that they are previewing the undercover footage from the film; this includes video of Atkins’ making cold calls to the four tabloids in which he claimed his ex-girlfriend was an administrative nurse at a clinic and had asked him to make “discreet enquiries” as to whether she could make money through the release of information about the celebrities which she could obtain via the clinic.
The story continues here: Tabloids lured by celebrity plastic surgery hoax
The video can be seen here “Revealed: Secret footage of tabloids being offered confidential information about celebrities: Video
British Tabloids in Medical Privacy Breach in Hoax by Starsuckers Filmmaker (Video)
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