Cases

Sharma v Singh & Associated Newspapers (No. 2)

Held

Dismissing the application:

Anonymity applications by adult witnesses should not become the norm in libel actions, and insufficient reason was shown here to depart from the open justice principle. Although containing a sexual element, the pleaded allegations of sexual harassment were at the lower end of the scale of gravity, and did not involve explicit sexual language or intimate parts of the body. The potential for distress, embarrassment and intrusive press attention was faced by every witness in civil proceedings, and the fears of the witnesses in this case were not distinguishable from the norm. Since there was an issue as to whether the letters were forgeries, there should be as much openness as possible about the names of the two women who had purportedly signed the letters in 2004.

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