malcolm coles

Walt Disney and Brand Republic/Haymarket seem to be breaching a court order banning reporting of new details about Alfie Patten, the alleged 13-year old father. (Update: Saturday 1pm. Walt Disney have pulled their story now).

In the last day, the Daily Mirror has had to pull its online story revealing Alfie's DNA/fatherhood test result.

Finding out details of reporting restrictions is hard - courts don't do anything useful like put them online. However, other news sites followed suit, although Martin Belam's great post shows the irrelevance of UK court orders when google news gives access to worldwide news sources.

Are Walt Disney & Haymarket breaching the court order?

As of Friday at 10pm, though, two UK websites are still reporting the details of the Mirror's story: UKfamily.co.uk (part of Walt Disney) and BrandRepublic.com, the UK marketing news site owned by Haymarket Media. You can see them revealing the results of the DNA test here and here.

Screenshots below (with some words blacked out).

I can't say they are definitely breaching the court order, as you can't get the full text online. But if their lawyers are working weekends, I suggest Walt Disney and Haymarket go and hunt out the full wording ...

Screenshot: Walt Disney's UKfamily.co.uk

UKfamily.co.uk - are they breaching court order over Alfie Patten?

Screenshot: BrandRepublic.com

BrandRepublic.com - are they breaching court order over Alfie Patten?

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