Cases

Attorney General v Times Newspapers Ltd and others

Comment

Because the parties agreed in the course of the hearing that publication should be allowed to the extent that information was in the public domain, the alternative definitions of what amounted to “public domain” canvassed by the parties were not considered by the Court of Appeal. There remains a real issue as to whether information loses its confidential nature only when it has been widely circulated or when it is merely accessible to the public, for example by being placed on the internet. In the light of subsequent case law, such as Venables v News Group Newspapers Ltd, it would appear that different criteria may apply depending on whether the information is personal (ie ‘private’) or of another type of confidence. In cases of government secrets it is suggested that once information has been accessed by those to whom disclosure causes most harm, the actual numbers of those who have access to it should not be determinative.

Areas of work

Human Rights
Injunctive Relief
Media Law
Privacy and Confidence
Public Law
Publishing

Also