Former tech PR Jeremy Hunt MP ordered by judge to delete tweet

Gag order on MP's flirtation with contempt of court lifted

The Secretary of State for Health (and former technology PR) Jeremy Hunt, got himself into a bit of bother with a judge after sending a tweet during the Frances Cappuccini manslaughter trial.

On the only the second day of the trial, Hunt had used the microbabble platform to link to a news report of the case, and commented that it was "a tragic case from which huge lessons must be learned", according to the Guardian.

Justice Coulson, the presiding judge, ordered that the tweet be removed immediately and instituted a temporary ban on reporting that it existed.

“It is highly inappropriate for anybody to pass comment which might be said to know the result of a trial before that result is known" said Justice Coulson.

"I suppose, potentially, in a very serious case, it could be regarded as a contempt of court. I would hope that everybody would know that. Sadly, these days, many people in public life don’t know that." ®

Memory-note from Joe Fay

That Hunt should make such a fat finger error is surprising to those of us whose tech reporting experience stretches back further than Yahoo!’s IPO. Hunt got his start in life, OK his start in business anyway, as a tech PR man. As a founder of Profile PR - communications services to the tech gentry - he represented the likes of direct PC vendor Kamco and venerable modem vendor DataFlex. Even then his political convictions were apparent, as he spearheaded a fearless campaign to overthrow a heinous regime of vested interests - to wit, the BT approvals process for modems.