Human rights

The Court of Appeal allowed an application to set aside an interim injunction restraining the defendant from publishing a story about the claimant celebrity. Since the injunction had been granted, the identity of the claimant had been published in the foreign press and on the internet. While publication was likely to breach the claimant’s right to privacy, it no longer carried the same weight against the defendant’s right to freedom of expression. In those circumstances, it could not be said that the claimant was likely to obtain a permanent injunction and s 12(3) of the Human Rights Act 1998 required that an interim injunction be refused unless the court was satisfied that the applicant was likely to establish at trial that the publication should not be allowed.