to those, however many, who take the trouble to look it up”. As he went on to say
in the next paragraph of his judgment, in a case such as this, “[f]or so long as the
court is in a position to prevent some of that intrusion and distress, depending upon
the individual circumstances, it may be appropriate to maintain that degree of
protection”.
62.
The same approach was taken by Tugendhat J in a later judgment in the same
case, CTB [2011] EWHC 1334 (QB), when refusing a further application to lift the
interlocutory injunction after the applicant’s name had been mentioned in the House
of Commons. At para 3, having accepted that it was “obvious that if the purpose of
this injunction were to preserve a secret, it would have failed in its purpose”, he said
that “in so far as its purpose is to prevent intrusion or harassment, it has not failed”.
Indeed, he regarded the fact that “tens of thousands of people have named the
claimant on the internet” as confirming, rather than undermining, the argument that
“the claimant and his family need protection from intrusion into their private and
family life”.
63.
It also seems to me that if there was no injunction in this case, there would
be greater intrusion on the lives of PJS and YMA through the internet. There may
well be room for different views as to whether the lifting of the injunction would
lead to an increase or a decrease in tweets and other electronic communications
relating to the story. However, if the identity of PJS and the story could be
communicated within England and Wales, then it would be likely that anyone in this
jurisdiction who was searching for PJS (or indeed YMA) through a search engine,
for reasons wholly unconnected with the story, would find prominent links to that
story. But if search engines serving England and Wales are geo-blocked from
mentioning PJS, or indeed YMA, in connection with the story, as they should be so
long as an injunction is in place, this would not happen. It might be said that PJS
and YMA could ask the search engine operators to remove any links to the story
pursuant to the decision of the Court of Justice in Google Spain SL v Agencia
Española de Protección de Datos (Case C-131/12) [2014] QB 1022, but it seems
unlikely that the reasoning in that case could apply to a story which has only recently
become public and is being currently covered in the newspapers.
64.
In the instant case, Jackson LJ said in his first judgment, when granting the
interlocutory injunction, that “[t]he proposed article would generate a media storm
and much public interest in [PJS’s] family. There would be increased press interest
in [his] and YMA’s family life. The children would become the subject of increased
press attention, with all that that entails”. There is no reason to think that that would
be significantly different now, despite the internet coverage of the story - and indeed
it may be that the press interest and attention identified by Jackson LJ in that passage
would be increased as a result of the internet coverage.
Page 31
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