Newspaper challenges legal gag in drugs minister case

Lawyers representing the mass-circulation tabloid newspaper, The Sun, are challenging an injunction imposed by the High Court which has banned it from naming a Cabinet Minister whose son has been accused of selling cannabis.

The paper had originally said it wouldn't challenge the Attorney General's ruling.

But it now says it has strong legal grounds for an appeal.

Three newspapers in Scotland - which has a separate legal system to that of England and Wales - today named the minister, and his identity has also been revealed in the Irish media and other foreign publications which can be readily obtained in English cities.

Under English law, the minister's identity cannot be revealed, because his son, at seventeen, is regarded as underaged, and must remain anonymous.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service