Bloggers exposed

Anonymous bloggers have no right to keep their identities secret, the High Court has ruled.

In an uncomfortable ruling for thousands of bloggers who publish under a protective pseudonym, Mr Justice Eady refused to grant an injunction to stop The Times revealing the identity of police officer Richard Horton, a detective constable with Lancashire Constabulary, who also writes a blog under the name of “Night Jack”.

Horton included anecdotes about his work that could be traced back to real cases, including under-age sex and rape cases as well as advice for his readers on what to do if they became a criminal suspect. His activity broke police rules.

Eady J ruled, in The Author of a Blog v Times Newspapers Ltd that Horton had no “reasonable expectation” to privacy because “blogging is essentially a public rather than a private activity”.

He went further than this, stating that even if Horton could have claimed he had a right to anonymity, he would have ruled against this on public interest grounds: “If it were the case that the defendant’s Art 10 right of freedom of expression here is indeed conditional upon establishing a public interest (which I do not believe it is), it would seem to me quite legitimate for the public to be told who it was who was choosing to make, in some instances, quite serious criticisms of police activities and, if it be the case, that frequent infringements of police discipline regulations were taking place.”