Surrey Herald reporter Patsy Duffy has successfully challenged a Section 39 order in a racial harassment case.
Duffy
asked Staines Magistrates Court to lift the ban so she could name
12-year-old Shane Way, whose mother, Karen Way, had been accused of
racial harassment by a post mistress.
Mrs Way claimed she had
gone to the shop because Shane had been mistreated by the post master,
who had ejected him. She denied making racist remarks.
During a
break in proceedings, Duffy asked the court clerk for the Section 39 to
be overturned, and he agreed to bring it up at the end of the case.
Duffy
said: “Shane was integral to the story and if I was to identify Mrs
Way, I would have been identifying him by association anyway.
“I argued it was a big community story and there was strong public interest.
I
referred to the fact Mrs Way had an Indian husband, that the parents
did not object to Shane being named and that it was not an ASBO case.”
After an hour, the order was revoked. Mrs Way was found not guilty.
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