Reuters loses appeal of injunction preventing publication of story

Reuters has lost its appeal against an injunction that prevented it from reporting leaked confidential and commercially sensitive information concerning global alternative asset manager Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP.

Louise Turner of Lexology reports, “Reuters appealed the decision. The basis of the appeal was that the Judge had erred by failing to conduct a proper balancing and proportionality exercise because he adopted (what the written grounds of appeal described as:) a ‘sliding scale of information by type or category’, with the disclosure of iniquity and hypocrisy and the correction of a misimpression by the claimant at the top. The complaint was that the Court’s starting point had been wrong, as the fact that there was no evidence of iniquity should not have been a significant factor in the balancing exercise conducted by the Court. According to Reuters, this error led the Court to give insufficient weight to a range of important matters of public interest.

“However the Court of Appeal disagreed with Reuters and dismissed the appeal. The Court of Appeal held that the Judge at first instance made no error of principle or law. His determination that the balance came down in favour of the preservation of the confidentiality of Brevan Howard’s information and that the grant of an injunction was a proportionate exception to Reuters’ right to freedom of expression under Article 10 were conclusions that he was entitled to reach.”

Read more here.