Being In The Media Spotlight: Where Should It End?

Ryan Giggs, the footballing superstar, entered the legal stage in 2011 when his super injunction preventing the media from reporting an extra-marital affair was 'outed' by MP John Hemming under parliamentary privilege.

Mr Giggs is now back in the legal news in the context of his divorce and the litigation relating to the untangling of the couples' finances. Given the history, it can hardly be surprising that as the proceedings start, Mr Giggs' made applications to prevent the media from being able to attend or report on his case. The applications came before Mr Justice Cobb and are reported here and provide an excellent summary of the law relating to privacy in the particular arena of financial remedy proceedings.

Mr Giggs made two applications (1) for the press to be excluded from attending hearings concerning their finances and (2) to prevent reporting of any financial information relating to those proceedings.

Should the press be allowed to attend the proceedings?

The rules governing media attendance at family proceedings make it clear that the ordinary expectation is for accredited representatives of media organisations to be allowed to attend. This ordinary expectation can be displaced in the interests of justice, or in the interests of a child, the safety or protection of a party or the orderly conduct of the proceedings. However Justice Cobb reminded Mr Giggs that the burden is on him as applicant to demonstrate the reasons why an exclusion should be in place.

In this case Mr Giggs' acknowledged that none of these scenarios existed at this time and withdrew his application. This does not mean that the application will not be renewed should circumstances change as the proceedings progress, and Justice Cobb acknowledged that this could arise 'if information is being considered about the parties' finances which includes price sensitive information'.

Should there by restrictions on what the media may report in financial remedy proceedings?

In general, parties to legal proceedings (and their children) have rights (albeit qualified) under Article 8 ECHR to respect of...