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supremecourt_1494675cThe Supreme Court has granted the artist in the “banned memoir” case, OPO v MLA, permission to appeal and ordered an expedited hearing. The hearing of the appeal is listed in the week commencing 19 January 2015.

As the Inforrm’s blog reported last month, on 6 November 2014 the artist applied to the Supreme Court for permission to appeal against an order of Court of Appeal dated 9 October 2014 ([2014] EWCA Civ 1277) granting an interim injunction to restrain the publication of a book which deals with his art form and his recovery from the sexual abuse he suffered in his childhood and his consequential mental illness. The full application to the Supreme Court can be read here [pdf].

The application for permission to appeal was supported by an written intervention made by free speech NGOs, English PEN, Article 19 and Index on Censorship.

On 9 December 2014, Lady Hale, Lord Carnwath and Lord Toulson granted the artist permission to appeal against the Court of Appeal’s decision and ordered an expedited hearing of the appeal.

There was an Inforrm’s Blog post about the Court of Appeal decision in which Olswang’s Dan Tench expressed “shock and disbelief” at the Court of Appeal decision. A number of prominent UK writers, including Sir Tom Stoppard and William Boyd, signed a letter from English PEN protesting at the banning of the book.