Internet bloggers who publish anonymously do not have the right to keep their identities secret despite expectations that they do, the High Court ruled yesterday.
In the first case dealing with bloggers’ privacy, Mr Justice Eady reportedly refused to grant an injunction to stop the naming of a police officer behind the prize-winning Night Jack blog.
The officer, Richard Horton, a detective constable in Lancashire, had sought the injunction to stop a national newspaper from publishing his name when one of its reporters found it out.
The 45-year-old said he should not be unmasked because he could face disciplinary action at work, and also that there was a public interest in preserving bloggers’ anonymity.
Writing as Night Jack, Mr Horton gave a warts-and-all account of frontline policing, which sometimes included stinging criticisms of senior officers and politicians.
He once advised members of the public under police investigation to “complain about every officer… show no respect to the legal system or anybody working in it.”
Reported extracts from the judge’s ruling suggest such entries undermined the author’s claim that the public interest was why he, and thousands of other bloggers, should be concealed.
The judge said: “It would seem to be 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”.
The blow to the blogosphere added that Mr Horton had no “reasonable expectation” to anonymity because “blogging is essentially a public rather than a private activity.”
Night Jack, which won the Orwell Prize for political writing, has now been deleted, but its author reportedly says he has since had several offers to publish a book of his experiences.
Jun 18, 2009
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