Also at the Online Journalism Blog is this article about writing online when there is a publication ban by the courts.
In Britain, the courts routinely send a notice to the press notifying them of what they cannot print. (Here they are.)
But the court order only binds those to whom it is addressed:
“Who is bound: This order binds all persons and all companies (whether acting by their directors, employees or agents or in any other way) who know that the order has been made.”
But if you do not know that the order has been made? It appears that it does not apply to you.
In particular, a blogger who picked up [a major newspaper story] (now the subject of reporting restrictions) and repeated it would not be banned from doing so, unless they had seen the court order (which they generally wouldn’t have done).
So the result is…
- Bloggers aren’t bound by the order unless they know it exists.
- If they know it exists, they have no way to find exactly what it says – so they can’t tell what they’re allowed to say and what they aren’t.