The BBC v Cardiff Council & Ors [2024] EWCOP 50 (T3)

Ex-tempore judgment following an application to alter a transparency order

The BBC made the application to review the transparency order as part of plans to make a documentary about MC, described by Hayden J as an extremely vulnerable young man. Hayden J also identifies "the real question, as I see it, is whether if this programme were to go ahead involving MC to the circumscribed extent that is contemplated, it could do so without interfering with his Article 8 rights."

After reviewing the legal framework and the evidence from the LA's learning disability psychologist, Hayden J rejects the application. The 'ground rules', as he called them, were unclear and any mitigations suggested during the hearing were insufficient in the light of a plan to publish a voicemail left by MC for his mother. Hayden J found this 'a very significant intrusion on the rights of MC' and concludes at [24] 

"His participation, however limited, in a programme which will inevitably and no doubt properly contain criticisms of the mental health system, is fraught with danger for MC. That danger is not confined to his immediate situation but risks having an adverse impact on his whole life."

Read the judgment on the National Archive