by professorpan » Tue May 31, 2005 2:02 pm
<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1496077,00.html?gusrc=rss">media.guardian.co.uk/site...?gusrc=rss</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Channel 4 wins legal fight to air documentary<br><br>John Plunkett<br>Tuesday May 31, 2005<br><br>Channel 4 has won the right to screen a documentary about a woman with a disturbing multiple personality disorder after a high court action tried to stop the broadcast going ahead.<br><br>It emerged today that Mr Justice Munby, at a hearing in camera, ruled that Channel 4 had the right to broadcast, following a challenge from the official solicitor, who represents the interests of people who cannot represent themselves.<br><br>Pamela Edwards has dissociative identity disorder - which was the subject of a BBC1 drama, May 33rd, last year - and requires round-the-clock care at a cost of half a million pounds a year.<br><br>Ms Edwards has four different internal characters, which she has named Andrew, Sandra, Margaret and Susan, and harms herself when the characters fight among themselves.<br><br>The official solicitor and Ms Edwards' local authority claimed the documentary was a breach of her privacy under the Human Rights Act, because she is unable to give permission to filming.<br><br>But Mr Justice Munby, in the family division of the high court, set aside the concerns about privacy and instead gave greater weight to the right to freedom of expression. He is due to set out his reasoning in full today.<br><br>The film, Being Pamela, is directed by David Modell and produced by Steve Boulton Productions, the team behind Channel 4's Bafta-winning Young, Nazi and Proud.<br><br>Kevin Sutcliffe, the Channel 4 executive who commissioned the documentary, said it was a "very complex case and a very sensitive situation".<br><br>"From the outset we put in place a series of measures that allowed us to be confident that everyone who was involved in making the film - Pamela, her carers and the production team - were all happy about the way it was being made," said Mr Sutcliffe, the channel's commissioning editor for news and current affairs.<br><br>"It is quite an uplifting film in lots of ways even though some of the details are quite dark. It gives you an insight into something and makes you think about someone's disorder in a constructive and positive way. It is a most extraordinary, multilayered story."<br><br>Film-maker Modell has been filming Ms Edwards for the last two years. He also explores her family history and the background to her condition, which affects four times as many women as men.<br><br>Lia Williams starred in BBC1 drama May 33rd, about a woman who suffers from dissociative identity disorder as a result of ritual abuse from her childhood onwards. The condition was also explored last year in a Five documentary, Extraordinary People: The Woman with Seven Personalities. <p></p><i></i>
