Cases

The Author of a Blog v Times Newspapers Ltd

Facts

The Claimant is a serving police officer and the author of the “Night Jack” blog, which deals with his police work and his opinions on a number of social and political issues relating to the police and the administration of justice. He sought to conceal his real identity by blogging under a pseudonym. It was accepted that a journalist for the Times newspaper had successfully identified the claimant by a process of deduction and detective work, mainly using information available on the Internet. The Claimant applied for an injunction to prevent the Times publishing his identity. He argued that the newspaper was subject to an enforceable duty of confidence not to reveal his identity and that he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in respect of the information that he was the blog’s author, in respect of which there was no countervailing public interest justification for its disclosure.

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