Judge rules media 'must be forewarned' of celebrity injunctions and super injunctions
In the wake of the so-called super injunctions issue earlier this year, newspapers and broadcasters must be forewarned of the existence of all relevant high court gagging orders obtained by celebrities and other public figures.
This is the upshot of new guidance rules issued by Lord Neuberger, the Master of the Rolls - part of his wide-ranging review of privacy injunctions and super injunctions, announced in May.
According to The Guardian, under the new guidelines, all media, that are seen to be an ‘interested party’, will be informed when a public figure attempts to obtain a gagging order ahead of the order being granted.
The ruling did however say that ‘truly exceptional’ circumstances would mean that the wider media would not be given advance notice.
Neuberger, who is the head of the judicial review, explained that the ruling had been made to avoid an undermining of public confidence in open justice.
The review into ‘gagging orders’ was launched following the Ryan Giggs ‘super injunction’ scandal earlier this year, where his identity, despite his anonymity being granted by the court, was exposed through users of Twitter.