Cases

Attorney General v Times Newspapers Ltd and others

Facts

In 1996 the defendant newspaper had given an undertaking to the Attorney General not to publish information about the British intelligence service disclosed to it by T, a former employee of the service. The defendant applied to vary the undertaking so as to permit it to publish extracts of a book written by T and published in Russia once the book had entered the public domain. The book contained matters disclosed in beach of confidence and matters which might be damaging to the national interest. The judge varied the undertaking to permit the defendant to republish information which had previously been published or made generally accessible to the public at large. The Attorney General appealed on the grounds that the phrase “generally accessible to the public at large” was too wide and that, to avoid damage to the national interest, publication should only be allowed when the defendant could demonstrate that the book had come to the widespread attention of the public at large.

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