The Yelland case was decided before the Human Rights Act came into force, but on July 18 this year, the court of appeal had to consider these questions in Paddy Ashdown v Telegraph Group Limited. Ashdown claimed an injunction and damages against the Sunday Telegraph in relation to the publication of his minute of a secret meeting he had had with Tony Blair in October 1997 to discuss close cooperation between the new Labour administration and the Liberal Democrats. The minute suggested that the prime minister had seriously considered forming a coalition cabinet with the Lib Dems despite the Labour landslide in 1997.
Extracts were published by the Sunday