Letter from Archerfield Partners to MPs and peers on the Joint Committee of Privacy and Injunctions

The position seems to be that the Committee now accepts that this matter is
sub judice, that it has been misled (if only by omission) by Mr Burby; but
that the Committee is going to continue to publish to the world information
which (a) relates to an ongoing court case, and (b) is a prima facie breach
of an interim injunction which is lawfully in place, at the risk of
depriving our client of the only remedy which is of value to her in those
proceedings.

Since we raised this matter with the Committee on Friday, The Daily Telegraph
has published a story repeating some of the more despicable allegations of
Mr Burby claiming reliance on the privilege created by the Committee’s
publication; the Daily Telegraph has published a follow up story because we
wrote to them pointing out our view that they could not publish in reliance
on the privilege created by the Committee’s publication (this article
included comment from John Hemming MP which naturally causes my client some
concern given his ‘outing’ of Ryan Giggs); the Editor of the Daily Telegraph
has tweeted on this issue; the blogger Paul Staines (who gave evidence
before you) has named an Asian head of state as being involved in this
story; and further tweets have identified our client.

We have no doubt that should the committee continue to publish then the
injunction will be fully breached and further harm done to our client. There
is a great deal more damage which could be caused to her, and which could be
averted by the timely removal of this material.

We hope that the committee will appreciate the serious injustice being done.
We also hope that the committee will appreciate the diplomatic repercussions
of continuing to publish Mr Burby’s untested allegations about a friendly
head of state in these circumstances.

In the circumstances where the Committee now accepts that this matter is sub
judice; where there seems to be no suggestion that this matter raises issues
that mean there should be any departure from the normal principle; and where
the Committee can avoid further serious harm by removing the material in
question, we again ask that the Committee does so as a matter of extreme
urgency.

Please acknowledge immediate receipt of this letter and confirm that we will
have a substantive response before 2.00pm today.

Yours faithfully

Archerfield Partners LLP

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