A team of regional press journalists managed to get a Section 39 order quashed which would have prevented them naming parents charged over the death of their son.

The journalists from Trinity Mirror’s Media Wales challenged an order which covered a girl whose seven-year-old twin brother died in a house fire during the summer, which initially appeared to be a tragic accident.

But the order, which prevented any details being published which could identify the girl, meant they were unable to name her mother who was charged with the murder of her son and the father, who was charged with causing or allowing the death of a child.

The Section 39 was overturned after representations in court by trainee reporter Julia McWatt and online communities editor Ed Walker, who argued the girl’s name was already in the public domain.

Ed, who has blogged about the process of getting the order overturned, told HTFP: “It was a team effort to get it overturned. We felt it was important that it was done and presented evidence to the judge on it.

“It is important for the local community. It was more the parents we wanted to name, rather than the girl.”

Getting the order overturned allowed a story to be published in the South Wales Echo about the charges faced by mother Sara Ege and father Yousef Ali Ege who did not enter pleas in court over charges relating to the death of their son Yaseen Ali.

The couple initially appeared at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court and when Julia found out about the Section 39 order, she made an unsuccessful representation to have it lifted.

On the same day, the case moved to the city’s crown court and Ed got together printouts of previous stories showing how the parents’ names and the twin daughter’s name had already been published when the fire occurred, before proceedings were active.

He also took with him a letter from lawyers in Canary Wharf which head of content Catrin Pascoe had arranged – leading to the judge agreeing to lift the order.