BBC wins right to reveal Jockey Club's secrets

The makers of a BBC documentary won a court battle yesterday for the right to use documents held by the Jockey Club's former security chief, in a Panorama programme on alleged corruption in racing. The High Court judge said the application was "in the public interest" because of the "existence, or apparent existence, of widescale corruption within racing".

The Jockey Club won an injunction on 31 May that bound Roger Buffham to the confidentiality agreement he signed when he left as head of security in August last year. But the BBC said the documents would help it to expose scandals and instances of corruption "endemic in British horse racing during the past decade".

Yesterday, Mr Justice Gray said: "The public interest in disclosure outweighs the right of confidence of the Jockey Club. Information revealing the existence, or apparent existence, of widescale corruption within racing is of legitimate concern to a large section of the public who either participate in racing or follow it, or who bet on the results of races. The fact that hard evidence of criminality may be lacking does not negate the legitimacy of this concern."

The judge said Mr Buffham had been paid £50,000 in compensation when he signed the confidentiality agreement. But Mr Buffham did not, as he had agreed, return to the club all of its documents. He kept "a substantial number", mostly concerning security department investigations "into misdeeds of one kind and another in the racing world". In a statement to the court, Stephen Scott, a Panorama producer, said Mr Buffham had told him he was astonished by the extent of corruption in horse racing and surprised by the club's lack of enthusiasm to tackle it.

The judge said Mr Buffham told Mr Scott he had retained documents "which he claimed supported charges of corruption and the failure of the Jockey Club to respond adequately".

After the ruling, Christopher Foster, the Jockey Club's executive director, said the club had taken legal action to protect its ability to regulate racing and "preserve the confidence of secret intelligence documents". The documents had come "into the hands of the BBC through breach of contract" by Mr Buffham.

The programme is to be transmitted this month.