Confidential information—Anonymous blog—Right to privacy

Queen’s Bench Division, 16 Jun 2009, Eady J

Bloggers who write under a pseudonym have no reasonable expectation of privacy in respect of their identity.

Hugh Tomlinson QC (instructed by Olswang) for the claimant. Antony White QC and Jonathan Barnes (instructed by Times Newpapers Ltd) for the defendant.

The claimant was a serving police officer. He was the author of an anonymous blog known as “Night Jack”. A journalist employed by the defendant investigated the blog and discerned the claimant’s true identity.

The claimant applied for an interim injunction to restrain the defendant from publishing any information that would or might lead to his identification as the person responsible for that blog. The claimant’s case was based both on the traditional law of confidence and upon the more recently developed doctrine acknowledging an independent cause of action arising from the improper disclosure of private information from such cases as Campbell v MGN Ltd [2004] UKHL 22, [2004]