Cases

Briscoe Mitchell v Hodder & Stoughton Ltd & Anr, Associated Newspapers Limited (non-party)

Held

The witness summons would be set aside and the application for non-party disclosure refused. The defendants had not demonstrated that the materials sought were sufficiently relevant to the issues in the underlying libel action to justify a disclosure order against a non-party. But even if it were assumed that the materials could cross the threshold of assisting one or other of the parties’ cases, the defendants had failed to establish that non-party disclosure was necessary in the circumstances.

Further, and as a matter of the court’s residual discretion, the application would be refused since there is at least some element of confidentiality in what an interviewee says to a journalist which remains in the journalist’s notes but is not ultimately published. The court is required to proceed with added caution on an application for non-party disclosure in relation to communications with a journalist.

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