PRIVACY AND THIRD PARTIES TO CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

Extract

In Khuja (formerly PNM) v Times Newspapers Ltd. [2017] UKSC 49; [2017] 3 W.L.R. 351, the appellant (A) failed to obtain an injunction restraining two newspapers from publishing information given about him in a criminal trial in which he had been a third party. The defendants were charged with serious sex offences involving children. A feared that the public would associate him with those offences if the information was published. He claimed that publication would interfere with his and his family's private and family life. As against this, the open justice principle means that, wherever possible, proceedings should be heard in public and that there should be fair reporting of the proceedings. This principle carries great weight in the common law.