Shiv Malik ordered to hand selected material to police

JOURNALIST Shiv Malik, who specialises in writing on terrorism, has been forced by the High Court in London to hand police some of his source material for a book.

The order came after the court had rejected the terms of an initial order from Manchester Crown Court as too broad. Manchester Police had demanded all the material Shiv Malik had gathered from a reformed Islamic jihadist, Hassan Butt, which they said they need for a trial due in the autumn.

With the support of the NUJ, Shiv Malik won a judicial review of the order, and the High Court did overturn it. But the judges then agreed to a revised police application that required only the submission of copies of his notebooks, on which he was allowed to blank out information that might identify other confidential sources. He also had to submit tapes, video and audio transcripts and hard copies of computer generated material.

Shiv Malik decided to comply with the order, since there was little prospect of a successful appeal. His case was funded jointly by the NUJ and the Sunday Times. The cost to the union is not known but is likely to be well into five figures.

The NUJ is still concerned that the law fails to give journalists sufficient protection. General Secretary Jeremy Dear said: ”We’re pleased the judges went some way to support journalists by cancelling the original order. They clearly indicated that the police cannot go on fishing expeditions in the hope that something will turn up.

“However, we are still deeply concerned that media freedoms are at risk. Despite the recognition of the special nature of journalistic material, counter-terrorism legislation continues to pose a real threat to the important role of investigative journalism in scrutinising and exposing terror organisations.”

The Journalist is published by the National Union of Journalists