Journalist Tanya Fowles is seeking to challenge lifetime anonymity orders granted to three convicted criminals in Northern Ireland following a recent high-court ruling in London.
Lifetime anonymity orders prevent convicts from ever being named in the press, and Fowles argued that the bans are being granted too often to help offenders evade public shame, The Journal reported.
“Applications for reporting restriction orders used to pop up a couple of times a year, but now it’s one a week,” said Co Armagh-based Fowles, who has worked as a court reporter for more than 30 years, The Irish Times reported.
Two of the anonymity orders Fowles is contesting involve convicted sex offenders who claimed that media publication of their names could lead them to self-harm. Fowles wrote to the Lady Chief Justice to ask for these and one other anonymity order to be rescinded, using grounds established in a failed injunction by comedian and children’s author David Walliams.
The David Walliams Precedent
Walliams sought an injunction at the UK’s High Court to prevent serious allegations of sexual misconduct from being published by The Guardian and ITV. His legal team argued that the impact of the coverage could lead him to take his own life, basing the case on Articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
“to guarantee that suicide will not occur or to eliminate every residual risk” Mr Justice Nicklin said in London's High Court The judge balanced these human rights against the media’s right to freedom of expression protected under Article 10 of the convention, and the story was published.
Fowles said that until recently, lifetime anonymity orders were reserved for exceptional circumstances with a high risk of third-party harm, such as the new identities given to Robert Thompson and Jon Venables after they murdered two-year-old James Bulger in Merseyside in 1993. Until 2023, only seven lifetime anonymity orders had been imposed in the UK, according to The Irish Times.
That number has risen following the granting of separate orders at Newry Crown Court, Antrim Crown Court, and Ballymena Magistrates’ Court. Fowles noted an increase in individuals seeking anonymity on mental health grounds in Northern Ireland, saying judges were erring on the side of caution.
“I’m not saying there aren’t mental health issues, but they’re not suicidal. It’s a situational reaction,” Fowles told The Journal.
The Threat of Self-Harm
Fowles described threatening suicide to avoid public scrutiny as tantamount to blackmail of the courts and the press. She pointed out that in some cases involving claims of self-harm risk, no prior action had been taken by mental health professionals to protect the accused from themselves.
The lack of previous intervention indicates that the actual risk may be quite low. Fowles recalled attempting to lift a reporting ban in Newry, where the accused subsequently told his lawyer he would leave the courthouse and run in front of a bus.
“That’s what is being done to us: ‘You print my name, I’ll kill myself,'” she told The Irish Times.
Campaigners in Northern Ireland are also seeking the enactment of a domestic violence register similar to Ireland’s Jennie’s Law, named after Jennifer Poole, who was killed by her ex-partner in 2021. However, Fowles warned that active anonymity orders could prevent police from disclosing a person’s convictions should such a register be created.
Journalists challenge lifetime anonymity orders in Northern Ireland
Why are journalists challenging anonymity orders in Northern Ireland?
Journalist Tanya Fowles is contesting three lifetime anonymity orders because she believes courts are granting them too frequently based on unverified self-harm threats. The challenge follows a High Court ruling in the David Walliams case that established that suicide threats do not automatically override freedom of expression.
How many lifetime anonymity orders were issued in the UK historically?
Until 2023, only seven lifetime anonymity orders had been imposed across the UK, often reserved for individuals given new identities after release, such as the killers of James Bulger in 1993.
What role does the Lady Chief Justice play in this case?
Fowles has written to the Lady Chief Justice, who heads the judiciary in Northern Ireland, to ask for the reporting restrictions on three specific offenders to be rescinded.
What is Jennie’s Law?
Jennie’s Law is Ireland’s first domestic violence register, approved by the Dáil and named after Jennifer Poole, who was killed by an ex-partner in 2021 with a hidden history of abuse. Campaigners want similar legislation in Northern Ireland, though Fowles notes anonymity orders could complicate police disclosures.
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