The attorney general has obtained a High Court injunction preventing the BBC from identifying an alleged MI5 informant who is said to be ‘a dangerous extremist and misogynist who physically and psychologically abused two female partners’.

Suella Braverman MP applied for an interim injunction to stop the broadcaster revealing the identity of a man known only as X, who is alleged to be a 'covert human intelligence source' (CHIS). She argued that disclosing X’s name or picture would ‘cause real damage to national security’ and lead to ‘a real and immediate risk that X would be killed or subject to serious physical harm’.

But the BBC said there was a strong public interest in identifying X, who they argued ‘used his status as a CHIS to coerce and terrify his partner’ which should have led MI5 to stop using him as a CHIS.

Attorney general Suella Braverman

Braverman applied for an interim injunction to stop the BBC revealing the man's identity

Source: Tayfun Salci/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock 

The broadcaster also relied on evidence of X’s violent behaviour towards two former partners, one of who provided a video which is said to show X attacking her with a ‘dangerous weapon’.

However, Mr Justice Chamberlain granted the attorney general an interim injunction to prevent the broadcasting of X’s name and image, which he said would cause ‘a real and immediate risk that X would be killed or seriously injured’.

The judge said: ‘The BBC will still be able to convey what it regards as the core elements of its story, including the allegation that X abused his CHIS status and the allegation that MI5 is at fault for using or continuing to use him as a CHIS.’

He added that the injunction represents ‘a significant interference with the BBC’s right to freedom of expression’, but said the order ‘will not prevent the BBC from making the allegations central to its story’.

A BBC spokesperson said: ‘We fought the case to try to tell as fully as possible two women’s stories and their experiences with X – his abuse of them and his use of his status as an MI5 intelligence source to coerce and terrify one of them, behaviour we say MI5 should have known about and that should have caused them to stop working with X.’ They added that the broadcaster is considering ‘whether there is a basis to appeal’.

 

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