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  1. Media Law
April 12, 2016updated 13 Jun 2016 2:52pm

Editor of London-based political blog risks fine and jail by breaching injunction and naming threesome celebrity

By Dominic Ponsford

A political blogger is facing the possibility of a fine and possible imprisonment after naming the celebrity who has an injunction banning reporting of his involvement in an extra-marital sexual threesome.

The leading blog yesterday became the first publication in England and Wales to breach the interim injunction which was imposed by the Court of Appeal on The Sun on Sunday.

The penalty for breaching the order is an unlimited fine and unlimited prison sentence.

The blogger said their servers are based in the US and the article was written in the Republic of Ireland. But they wrote today that they have been threatened with jail under the Contempt of Court Act by the celebrity's lawyers Carter Ruck.

He said: "There are no physical assets in the UK, there is no digital equivalent of a printing press, no device that can be seized or smashed. Web users point their browsers at a server in the US and fetch the data back, we do not store published content in the UK."

The blogger said that proceedings have been threatened in Ireland, which they would be prepared to fight them.

Leading media lawyer Mark Stephens said he thought it was likely the blogger will be called before the court, even if their servers are offshore and they themselves are not a British citizen.

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Stephens said: "He will have to come before the court and explain himself, purge the contempt, apologise and pay a fine.

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