CBS will ‘vigorously contest’ Terrorism Act production order

Posted by Martin Stabe on 14 May 2008 at 11:13
Tags: Law, Magazines, National Newspapers, Television

CBS plans to “vigorously contest” a production order for notes issued by Greater Manchester Police under the Terrorism Act.

As Press Gazette reports this week, the US television network was issued with the order over a story about reformed British jihadist Hassan Butt aired on its 60 Minutes programme last year.

“We plan to vigorously contest this demand for our unpublished material,” 60 Minutes spokesman Kevin Tedesco told US television new blog TVNewser.

The BBC, Sunday Times and Prospect magazine have also been issued with production orders over similar stories. All the news organisations plan to contest the order in Manchester at a hearing tomorrow.

The case comes as freelance investigative journalist Shiv Malik, who interviewed Butt for a forthcoming book takes his challenge against an identical order to the judicial review in the High Court next week.