Police blogger to be outed

Night Jack, an award-winning blog chronicling a policeman's job in an unnamed British town, has been deleted after a High Court ruling failed to preserve the author's anonymity.

The Times newspaper is to press ahead and identify the author after an injunction to prevent them from doing so was defeated in the High Court.

Presiding Judge, Mr Justice Eady said blogging was "essentially a public rather than a private activity".

In April this year Night Jack was awarded the prestigious Orwell prize for blogging.

Awarding the prize, the judges said: "The insight into the everyday life of the police that Jack Night's wonderful blog offered was - everybody felt - something which only a blog could deliver, and he delivered it brilliantly."

"It took you to the heart of what a policeman has to do - by the first blogpost you were hooked, and could not wait to click on to the next," the judges added.

However, the author has now deleted all entries according to a message on his WordPress blog.

Defence lawyer Hugh Tomlinson QC said the thousands of bloggers who post anonymously would be "horrified" to think the law would do nothing to protect their identities if someone carried out the necessary detective work to unmask them.

In his blog Night Jack voiced his opinions on criminal, social and political issues and the judge said that it was often useful, in assessing the value of an opinion or argument, to know its source.

"For so long as there is anonymity, it would obviously be difficult to make any such assessment," Mr Justice Eady said.

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