Disclosing Name of Source

Ashworth Security Hospital v Mgn Ltd (TLR 10 January CA)

An unidentified hospital employee supplied 17 pages of medical information held on the hospital database about Ian Brady, the Moors murderer who had gone on hunger strike, to an intermediary who sold the information to MGN Ltd, who published verbatim extracts in The Mirror. MGN opposed an application for an order that it identify the intermediary (as the only likely means of discovering the source’s identity) on the grounds the judge had no jurisdiction to make the order; it offended against Article 10 of the European Convention for the Protection Of Human Rights And Fundamental Freedoms and also s10 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981. Article 10 of the Convention protects the right to freedom of expression without interference by public authority while s10 of the Act provides ‘No court may require a person to disclose, nor is any person guilty of contempt of court for refusing to disclose, the source of information contained in a publication for which he is responsible, unless it be established to the satisfaction of the court that disclosure is necessary in the interests of justice or national security or for the prevention of disorder or crime’.