police blogger to be identified

16 Jun 2009

'Night Jack' is a serving detective constable who writes anonymously

The High Court has refused to preserve the anonymity of an award-winning policeman blogger who has written about the force and government ministers.

Mr Justice Eady refused an injunction to prevent The Times identifying serving officer "Night Jack", winner of an Orwell prize for blogging.

The judge said said blogging was "essentially a public rather than a private activity".

Night Jack's lawyer said preserving his anonymity was in the public interest.

Hugh Tomlinson QC, said the thousands who communicated via the internet under a cloak of anonymity would be "horrified" to think the law would do nothing to protect their identities if someone carried out the necessary detective work to unmask them.

But the judge ruled any right of privacy on the part of the blogger would be likely to be outweighed by a countervailing public interest in revealing that a particular police officer had been making such contributions.

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