Judgment Approved by the court for handing down.
Miranda v SSHD
person committing the action) or creates a serious risk to the health or safety of the
public or a section of the public; and (ii) the person publishing the material intends it
to have that effect (or is reckless as to whether or not it has that effect), then the
publication is an act of terrorism, provided, of course, that the conditions stated in
section 1(1)(b) and (c) are satisfied.
56.
I return to the publication of a blog that argues (on religious or political grounds)
against the vaccination of children. On the interpretation which I would adopt, such a
blogger would not be a terrorist even if his blog were judged to create a serious risk to
public health, unless he intends his publication to create the risk (or is reckless as to
whether his blog will have that effect). Likewise, on this interpretation the junior
doctors mentioned at para 46 above would not be terrorists either.
CONCLUSION ON THE FIRST AND SECOND GROUNDS OF APPEAL
57.
For the reasons that I have given, the true and dominant purpose of the Schedule 7
stop of Mr Miranda was to give effect to the final PCS. I have rejected Mr Ryder’s
submission that this was a “speculative” purpose. I have also rejected the literal
interpretation of “terrorism” which was accepted by the Divisional Court. But the
question remains whether the exercise of the power to stop was lawful on the facts of
this case. It is necessary to repeat that Schedule 7 para 2(1) provides that an
examining officer may question a person to whom the paragraph applies (and it is
common ground that the paragraph did apply to Mr Miranda) “for the purpose of
determining whether he appears to be a [terrorist]”. It is also relevant that para 2(4)
provides that an examining officer may exercise this power “whether or not he has
grounds for suspecting that a person [is a terrorist]”.
58.
As we have seen, the final PCS stated: “We assess that MIRANDA is knowingly
carrying material, the release of which would endanger people’s lives. Additionally,
the disclosure or threat of disclosure is designed to influence a government, and is
made for the purpose of promoting a political or ideological cause”. Mr Ryder
submits that there is no suggestion that the Security Service or the MPS believed that
Mr Miranda, Mr Greenwald, the Guardian or others in the press publishing the
Snowden material were advancing a political cause. But Parliament has set the bar
for the exercise of the Schedule 7 power at quite a low level. As Laws LJ put it at
para 32 of his judgment, the power has been given to provide an opportunity for the
ascertainment of the possibility that a traveller at a port may be concerned in the
commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism: see para 32 above. The
evidence is that the terms of the PCS led DI Woodford to decide that the use of the
stop power was “appropriate” (see para 17 above). It was not necessary for the MPS
to have formed the view that the material would be released in order to advance a
political cause. It was sufficient for them to have considered that it might be released
for that purpose. On the facts of this case, therefore, I consider that the power was
exercised for a lawful purpose.
THE THIRD GROUND OF APPEAL: PROPORTIONALITY
59.
Mr Ryder submits that the use of Schedule 7 power against Mr Miranda was an
unjustified and disproportionate interference with his right to freedom of expression
guaranteed by article 10 of the Convention. The proportionality principle is now well
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