''MNB v News Group Newspapers'' also known as ''Goodwin v News Group Newspapers'' is an English privacy law case in which then banker
Fred Goodwin
Frederick Anderson Goodwin FRSE FCIBS (born 17 August 1958) is a Scottish chartered accountant and former banker who was Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) between 2001 and 2009.
From 2000 to 2008, he pre ...
successfully applied for a temporary injunction to prevent ''
The Sun'' from publishing details about his private life. The injunction was breached by John Hemming MP in the House of Commons where the case was inaccurately referred to as a
super-injunction.
Breach of injunction
On 10 March 2011,
John Hemming, a
backbench
In Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no governmental office and is not a frontbench spokesperson in the Opposition, being instead simply a member of the " ...
Liberal Democrat MP, referred in Parliament (under
parliamentary privilege) to the supposed existence of "a
superinjunction
An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in par ...
preventing
oodwinfrom being identified as a banker". As matters discussed in Parliament can be freely reported by the press, newspapers including ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'', and ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was f ...
'',
reported that Goodwin had obtained such an injunction, while still remaining unable to explain what information the injunction restricted the publication of.
[
On 19 May 2011, Lord Stoneham, speaking in the ]House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...
, asked the Government "how can it be right for a super-injunction to hide the alleged relationship between Sir 'sic''Fred Goodwin and a senior colleague?" Later that day, the High Court varied the order, allowing Goodwin's name to be published, but continued it in relation to the identity of the lady involved. In his judgment, Mr Justice Tugendhat noted that the order had not been a superinjunction as it had been published in anonymised form on the British and Irish Legal Information Institute
The British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII, pronounced "Bailey") provides legal information, and especially reports of cases decided by courts, in the United Kingdom generally. Decisions from England and Wales, Ireland, Northern ...
website. He also stated that the injunction had not prevented Goodwin being identified as a banker, but instead prevented the person applying for the injunction from being identified as a banker, and that this was done because "if the applicant were identified as a banker that would be likely to lead to his being named, which would defeat the purpose of granting him anonymity". The judge criticised press reporting of the case as including "misleading and inaccurate statements".
See also
*'' Fred Goodwin v News Group Newspapers and VBN'' 011
The following is a list of different international call prefixes that need to be dialled when placing an international telephone call from different countries.
Countries by international prefix
Countries using optional carrier selection code ...
EWHC 1437 (QB)
References
{{Privacy injunctions in English law
English privacy case law