position, which the Court is obliged to respect, is clear. There is on present evidence
no public interest in any legal sense in the story, however much the respondents may
hope that one may emerge on further investigation and/or in evidence at trial, and it
would involve significant additional intrusion into the privacy of the appellant, his
partner and their children.
45.
At the end of the day, the only consideration militating in favour of
discharging the injunction is the incongruity of the parallel - and in probability
significantly uncontrollable - world of the internet and social media, which may
make further inroads into the protection intended by the injunction. Against that,
however, the media storm which discharge of the injunction would unleash would
add a different and in some respects more enduring dimension to the existing
invasions of privacy being perpetrated on the internet. At the risk of appearing
irredentist, the Supreme Court has come to the conclusion that, on a trial in the light
of the present evidence, a permanent injunction would be likely to be granted in the
interests of the appellant, his partner and especially their children. The appeal should
therefore be allowed, and the Court will order the continuation of the interim
injunction to trial or further order accordingly.
LORD NEUBERGER: (with whom Lady Hale, Lord Mance and Lord Reed
agree)
46.
The issue which we have to decide is whether to uphold or reverse the
decision of the Court of Appeal to lift an interlocutory injunction which it had
previously granted at the suit of PJS, who is married to YMA, and they have two
young children. That interlocutory injunction restrained NGN until trial or further
order from publishing a story about a sexual relationship between PJS and AB and
another, a story which had been communicated to News Group Newspapers Ltd,
NGN, by AB. I agree that we should reverse the decision and continue, or re-impose,
the interlocutory injunction, for the reasons given in the judgment of Lord Mance,
and I also agree with Lady Hale. Because we are reversing the Court of Appeal and
are not unanimous in doing so, I add a few words of my own.
The history in summary
47.
After NGN had obtained the story from AB, they very properly informed PJS
of their intention to publish it in the Sun on Sunday newspaper. PJS’s case was and
remains that this would be unlawful as it would violate his legal rights as it would
be an unlawful misuse of his private information. Accordingly, he immediately
issued proceedings against NGN seeking a permanent injunction to prevent such
publication. Because a permanent injunction can only be granted after a trial, NGN
would have been able to publish the story in the meantime. Accordingly, PJS also
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