Loreena McKennitt has become well-known in the UK for all the wrong reasons. The Canadian singer has become embroiled in an unseemly fight over privacy and freedom of speech after her former friend, Niema Ash, published a frank memoir of her time with McKennitt.\n<\/p>\n
\nOn learning of the book, as proofs were about to be sent to the printers, McKinnett telephoned Ash, warning her that she could \u2018have it stopped in 24 hours\u2019, says the author. \u2018This was back in 2005. I didn\u2019t think she would be able to stop it.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u2018I\u2019d had the book looked at by a specialist media solicitor, and my editor was a journalist who had taken courses in media law. Neither saw anything wrong with it.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\nMcKinnett clearly didn\u2019t see it that way. She at first tried to stop the publication of the book, and then raised objections to 39 separate passages.\n<\/p>\n
\nAs the book stands, now published, eight passages have been deleted due to the injunction.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u2018The things they considered private were so petty,\u2019 Ash told Index. \u2018Obviously, I can\u2019t repeat exactly what they were, but they were on the level of, y\u2019know, saying someone took vitamin C because they had a cold.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\nDoes Ash think that it\u2019s an intense need for privacy that led McKevitt to take action against the book?\n<\/p>\n
\n\u2018I don\u2019t think it\u2019s about privacy, actually – she\u2019s done hundreds of interviews. I think it\u2019s more about protection of her image. She doesn\u2019t want anything written about her unless she controls it. Loreena has this image of being a Celtic queen, a goddess, and this book, portraying her as a normal person, doesn\u2019t fit in with that.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\nThe upholding of the injunction could set a dangerous precedent, as it sets the right to privacy above the right to free expression, but Ash is determined not to give up without a fight. She plans to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u2018I belong to the Society of Authors,\u2019 says Ash, \u2018and they have been having very serious discussions about this. It could very badly affect biographers. But the worrying thing is, the book ha already been published in Canada and the US. There\u2019s no way what has happened here in the UK could have happened over here.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Loreena McKennitt has become well-known in the UK for all the wrong reasons. The Canadian singer has become embroiled in an unseemly fight over privacy and freedom of speech after her former friend, Niema Ash, published a frank memoir of her time with McKennitt. On learning of the book, as proofs were about to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[4880],"tags":[5660,5661],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49437,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions\/49437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}