A Liverpool newspaper has won the right to appeal against a gagging order preventing it from publishing details about city nightclub Cream.

A high court judge granted the world-famous club an injunction preventing the Liverpool Echo - and its sister paper the Daily Post - from printing articles based on information from the club's former accounts and finance manager Chumki Banerjee.

But the Echo has vowed to fight the injunction and has now been granted permission to appeal against the gag imposed by Mr Justice Lloyd.

Before the injunction was granted, Cream told the High Court it was worried that if the Echo were to publish Ms Banerjee's claims any negative publicity might deter investors from putting money into the club.

Echo editor Mark Dickinson said: "We are delighted to have been granted permission to appeal.

"In our view Mr Justice Lloyd was wrong to grant this injunction and we have a powerful case to put before the Court of Appeal."

He added: "This is an important principle of press freedom. We have information which we firmly believe is in the public interest to publish."

In June, Liverpool council licensing officer Bill Wadkin and Cream director Stuart Davenport were arrested amid allegations of corruption and both are on police bail while detectives continue their inquiries. They both deny any wrong-doing.

The High Court gagging order concerns unrelated information about Cream, which the Echo wants to publish, arising from documents copied by Ms Banerjee.

Under the terms of the injunction, the papers are prevented from saying what these are.

In his evidence to the High Court, Cream's chief operating officer, James King, said the club was in negotiations with a large entertainment company for a big investment staging major events.

He claimed the company and any other potential future investors would be put off from investing by any further "negative publicity".

The Echo argued that disclosure of Ms Banerjee's allegations was justified in the public interest to correct a "false public image".

After considering written submissions from the paper's lawyers, Lord Justice Robert Walker granted it leave to appeal.

In a written submission he said: "The appeal has some real prospect of success and raises issuesunder the Human Rights Act 1998 of general importance."

The hearing, which will be held in private, is expected to last up to two days.

No date has yet been fixed, but Lord Justice Walker has said the case "merits some degree of expedition".

Do you have a story about the regional press? Ring 0116 227 3122/3121, or
e-mail pastill@nep.co.uk

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