The breach happened in February 2022, when a member of the British military accidentally emailed an external contact a spreadsheet containing the details of 18,700 Afghan servicemen, police officers and others seeking refuge in Britain after the Taliban takeover.
The disclosure was not discovered until part of the spreadsheet was posted on Facebook in August 2023. Within days, journalists approached the Ministry of Defense about the breach, prompting the government’s application for an injunction.
The government, led by the Conservative Party at the time, went to England’s High Court to obtain an order barring anyone from disclosing the breach, even to the people whose lives were feared to be at risk from the Taliban as a result. Journalists were also prevented from reporting on the existence of the court order itself.
But the government’s unprecedented use of a super injunction has intensified questions about freedom of the press in the country. The State Department’s annual publication of reports on international human rights on Tuesday criticized Britain’s record, describing “credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression,” while Vice President JD Vance has also argued that free speech is under threat.
The British government has said it upholds free speech, but that it balances that right with the need to prevent violent disorder, hate crimes and the swaying of trial juries.
Justice Martin Chamberlain, the judge who lifted the order relating to the Afghan data breach last month, said that it was the first super injunction ever granted “contra mundum,” meaning “against everyone,” and that it interfered with freedom of expression and Britain’s democratic processes.