24.
It is fairly obvious that wall-to-wall excoriation in
national newspapers, whether tabloid or ‘broadsheet’, is likely
to be significantly more intrusive and distressing for those
concerned than the availability of information on the Internet
or in foreign journals to those, however many, who take the
trouble to look it up. Moreover, with each exposure of personal
information or allegations, whether by way of visual images or
verbally, there is a new intrusion and occasion for distress or
embarrassment. Mr Tomlinson argues accordingly that ‘the
dam has not burst’. For 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. The analogy with King Canute to some
extent, therefore, breaks down.
25
It may be thought that the wish of NGN to publish more
about this ‘story’, with a view to selling newspapers and
perhaps achieving other commercial advantages, demonstrates
that coverage has not yet reached saturation point. Had it done
so, the story would no longer retain any interest. This factor
tends, therefore, to confirm my impression that the court's
attempts to protect the claimant and his family have not yet
become wholly futile.
26.
In these circumstances, it seems to me that the right
question for me to ask, in the light of JIH v News Group
Newspapers Ltd [2011] 2 All ER 324 and In re Guardian News
and Media Ltd [2010] UKSC 1, is whether there is a solid
reason why the claimant’s identity should be generally revealed
in the national media, such as to outweigh the legitimate
interests of himself and his family in maintaining anonymity.
The answer is as yet in the negative. They would be engulfed
in a cruel and destructive media frenzy. Sadly, that may
become unavoidable in the society in which we now live but,
for the moment, in so far as I am being asked to sanction it, I
decline to do so. On the other side, …, it has not been suggested
that there is any legitimate public interest in publishing the
story.”
The analysis in these passages is both relevant and indeed largely transposable to
the circumstances of the present appeal.
Page 19
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