I noticed the other day that the standard order on the CopyDirect website (sorry, now the slips-off-the-tongue ” Press Association Injunction Application Alert Service”) standard order for a RRO does not include either the publication of information by email or all forms of print publication. The former is not surprising on one level since the purpose of the service is to assist those dealing with applications aimed primarily at the press. But the truth is that this standard order is drawn on in other circumstances too, where advocates are looking for a starting point for an order that will prohibit other sorts of conduct, not just that involving the maintstream media. The standard order prohibits “the publishing or broadcasting in any newspaper, magazine, public computer network, internet website, sound or television broadcast or cable or satellite programme service” of the relevant information. It is easy to assume it covers print publication generally, but it doesn’t. It does not, for example, cover the publication of information in the form of a book, or a leaflet / flyer.

Worth remembering if you are drawing up a RRO. Is “newspaper and magazine” enough?

For example, readers may recall the case of Vicky Haigh, which involved distribution of information in the form of emails to a distribution list.