Contempt of court

Sources of information - disclosure - order for summary judgment against freelance journalist to disclose identity of hospital employee not appropriate

Ackroyd v Mersey Care NHS Trust: CA (Lords Justice Ward, May and Carnwath): 16 May 2003

In Ashworth Hospital Authority v MGN Ltd [2002] 1 WLR 2003, the House of Lords ordered disclosure against a newspaper of the identity of the source from which a patient's health records were obtained.

In this case, the defendant, a freelance journalist, admitted being the intermediary who had obtained and passed on that information.

Subsequently, an order for summary judgment in favour of the claimant health authority was made against the defendant that he disclose the identity of any hospital employee involved in his acquisition of the relevant medical records.

The defendant appealed.

Gavin Millar QC and Anthony Hudson (instructed by Thompsons) for the defendant; Vincent Nelson QC and Colin Thomann (instructed by Capsticks) for the claimant.

Held, allowing the appeal and ordering a trial of the issues, that the protection of journalistic sources was one of the basic conditions for press freedom in a democratic society; that although there was a clear public interest in preserving the confidentiality of medical records that alone should not automatically be regarded as an overriding requirement justifying a summary order; that the material facts of the defendant's case were materially different from those in the MGN case; and that, accordingly, he was entitled to have the evidence fully examined at a trial.