Newspaper Society lawyers assisted Surrey and Berkshire Media Ltd and the Press Association in their successful challenge last week to an application for judicial review by two senior police officers.
Facing charges of misconduct in a public office, two officers had challenged a ruling of the Aldershot Magistrates which would have allowed the publication of their home addresses.
They had asked for an order under Section 11 of the Contempt of Court Act banning the publication of their addresses, on the basis that they were high ranking police officers well known in the area, and that publication of their addresses would put them and their families at risk.
But, after an emergency application was made to the High Court, Lord Justice Pill ruled that the media should be able to publish their addresses adding that “any approach to them is likely to be a targeted one which would not be deterred by the need to discover a home address”.
