Entire Edition Pulped
Thousands of copies of last week’s Oxford Student are due to be shredded by the university after the threat of a legal injunction forced publisher Oxford Student Services Limited to hand over all printed copies of the newspaper as well as destroy all electronic material relating to the paper’s front page story. Details of the story, which outlined an ongoing disciplinary case against an undergraduate, cannot now be released for legal reasons.
The university intervened on Thursday afternoon through their London based lawyers, Nabarro Nathanson, on the premise that the article, which also ran on pages four and five, was in breach of confidence and a possible violation of Data Protection legislation.
As the newspaper had already been printed, The Oxford Student contacted a leading firm of media lawyers who gave their opinion that the university’s various contentions were disputable and that any injunction could be challenged, but that doing so could cost the publisher in excess of £10,000. The publisher of the newspaper then took the decision, with the agreement of the editor, to accede to the university’s request and cancel the delivery of the newspaper.
The Oxford Student had informed the Senior Proctor via the Clerk to the Proctors by email of the intention to publish by 9am Wednesday morning, 24 hours before the paper began printing. Having received no response by 2pm, the newspaper contacted him by telephone. He made no reference to any potential legal action. The Senior Proctor issued the newspaper with general proctor guidelines relating to the reporting of student disciplinary cases.
The newspaper went to press at nine o’clock on Thursday morning and the editor was not informed of any pending action by the university until 4pm, after the paper had been printed and was awaiting collection. A university spokeswoman claimed this was because the proctors were not aware of the full details of The Oxford Student’s story and because, “it takes time to get legal advice.
At 6pm on Thursday, the newspaper was told by the university’s legal advisor Jonathan Anelay that they were prepared to go to court in London that evening in order to secure an injunction. He informed the newspaper that this action had been positively backed by the Vice Chancellor, Dr John Hood. It is believed to be the first time that a British university has taken steps to secure an injunction against its own student newspaper.
OSSL, the commercial arm of the Student Union, cannot reveal the exact amount of revenue lost for commercial reasons, but the value of advertising in a single edition of the paper is estimated to be between £10,000 and £20,000.
A university statement said, ‘The edition carried confidential details of an ongoing university disciplinary case against an undergraduate, which information had been released to the paper in breach of the university’s procedures and without the consent of the individuals involved.
‘Publishing details of such a case would be highly detrimental both to the conduct of a fair disciplinary process and, potentially, to the welfare of the students involved… The welfare of undergraduates is a primary concern of both OUSU and the university, and it is crucial to students’ confidence in the complaints process and the disciplinary process that the strictest confidentiality is maintained.
The spokeswoman also denied that the Vice-Chancellor was involved with the process, saying, “The decision was taken by university lawyers.” Rob Lewis, editor of The Oxford Student, said, “I am disappointed that the newspaper was not able to be distributed and wish the matter had been resolved before going to print. Advice we obtained on the day suggested the university’s legal claims were contestable but we took the decision not to challenge it.”
27th Oct 2005