Newman v Southampton CC – Court of Appeal to livestream hearing on Thursday

Those who are keen observers of information law (who isn’t?) may be interested to know that the Court of Appeal will be live-streaming the hearing of Ms Newman’s appeal in this case on Thursday 4 March 2021. Proceedings may be observed here.

The Court of Appeal does not live-stream all appeal hearings, but only those in cases that it deems to be high profile and legally significant. This particular case is likely to be of special interest to media lawyers and those interested in the reconciliation of children’s and parents’ rights to (among other things) privacy.

For more background on the case, see our earlier posts on the original High Court decision and on the Court of Appeal’s decision on permission. In the latter decision, the Court of Appeal stated that:

‘The appeal raises a matter of significant public interest, namely the balance as between Article 8 and Article 10 where a responsible journalist seeks access to court papers; this includes consideration of the approach of the court to the Article 8 interests of a young child where a person with parental responsibility wishes to consent to full disclosure of all the court papers on behalf of the child, the subject of the proceedings.’

Anya Proops QC (of 11KBW) acts for the Appellant, Ms Newman, together with Zac Sammour (of 11KBW) and Kate Temple-Mabe (of 7BR). They are instructed by Elizabeth Morley of Howard Kennedy.

Michael White

Newman v Southampton CC: child, mother, journalist – whose rights win out?

The High Court handed down judgment on Friday in Newman v Southampton City Council & Ors [2020] EWHC 2103 (Fam), the first recorded judgment concerning journalistic access to the court file in public law family proceedings. The case is likely to be of interest to media lawyers generally, and throws up potential complications surrounding the scope and extent of the privacy rights of children vis-à-vis their parents. Continue reading