Courts issue 80 gagging orders in six years

Courts issue 80 gagging orders in six years

The rich and the famous have obtained almost 80 gagging orders in British courts in six years, blocking the publication of intimate details about their private lives, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Mr Justice Eady, whose rulings have been credited with 'creating a privacy law by the back door'

By Steven Swinford, and Holly Watt 10:54PM BST 13 May 2011

Judges are issuing privacy injunctions at an increasing rate, with a total of 18 orders granted already this year compared with just five in the whole of 2005.

They have also issued 12 super-injunctions, which ban the media from referring to their existence.

The Daily Telegraph analysed all secrecy orders and injunctions issued in the past six years, prompted by suggestions that the orders are increasingly being used by the courts to enforce a “privacy law by the backdoor”.

No government department has kept track of the use of injunctions.

In the past week, the debate about gagging orders has reached the highest levels of government, with David Cameron ordering senior ministers to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the possibility of introducing a privacy law in Britain.

Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, has also said that regular breaches of injunctions on the internet are now “making a mockery” of the court orders. Earlier this week, the alleged identities of many of the famous figures who have recently obtained injunctions were published on Twitter without any apparent sanction.

The Daily Telegraph’s audit found:

• Nine footballers, nine actors, four pop stars, six wealthy businessmen and women, a senior civil servant and an MP have obtained injunctions;

• Just three High Court judges have granted more than a third of the injunctions between them;

• Schillings, the media law firm, has obtained more than 20 of the orders and been paid an estimated £2 million;

• One super-injunction is so binding that even the name of the judge has been kept secret. He can be referred to only as Mr Justice [xxxx];

• A raft of previously unpublished injunctions has been uncovered, including an international pop star who obtained a gagging order to prevent a former employee revealing details about her private life.

John Hemming, the back-bench Liberal Democrat MP who is campaigning against the excessive use of super-injunctions, said: “It’s scandalous, far too many of these injunctions have been granted, creating a dangerous culture of secrecy in British courts. These injunctions should be reserved for cases of national security and serious matters, but they are instead being used to stop rich men from getting red faces.”

The Daily Telegraph’s survey includes all 77 injunctions received by this newspaper since 2002. The secretive nature of the gagging orders, however, means there are likely to be many more.

In the past week alone there have been three applications for privacy injunctions. Two of the hearings were held in secret while the third application was granted to a Premiership footballer who had an affair.

Mr Justice Eady, whose rulings have been credited with “creating a privacy law by the back door”, has granted at least 11 privacy injunctions. Mr Justice Tugendhat has granted 10 injunctions while Mrs Justice Sharp has issued seven.

• A Premier League footballer has become the latest high-profile celebrity to gain an injunction to prevent details of an extra-marital affair becoming public. Unusually, both the player, who is a father as well as a husband, and his mistress applied to block publication in a joint move. In other recent cases, the woman has been identified while the cheating husband has been granted anonymity by the courts.