June 20, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 15, 1429

LONDON: A British journalist won a legal test case over the confidentiality of reporters’ contacts on Thursday, after judges ruled against a court order seeking all his notes for a biography of a former Islamist radical.

Civil liberties campaigners had feared the so-called “production order”, obtained by Greater Manchester Police under anti-terrorism laws, could undermine the future of investigative journalism in Britain.

The order had required London reporter Shiv Malik to give police all his notes and source material for a book he was writing on Hassan Butt, a British-born Muslim who spent 10 years inside radical Islamist groups.

Judges at the High Court in London said the order should be reconsidered and set a date later this month to decide what source material it should apply to.

They said the judge who issued the order at Manchester Crown Court was entitled to do so, but said the terms of the order that he made were too wide.

“A balance has to be struck between the protection of confidential material of journalists and the interest of us all in facilitating effective terrorist investigations,” they said.

Malik said the ruling was a “victory for common sense”.

“The High Court has agreed with the substance of our case, that investigative journalists should be allowed to maintain the confidentiality of their sources and their materials,” he said.

Malik said he would fight the revised order, which he expected to be limited to his notes relating to Butt.

“It’s a partial victory in our favour, we have yet to battle out the rest,” he said. “At least the ground has now been settled for what definitely should not be given over.”—Reuters