{
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    {
      "slug": "1972-uk-sunday-times-thalidomide-injunction",
      "title": "United Kingdom court bars The Sunday Times from publishing an article on thalidomide",
      "occurred_on": "1972-11-17",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "GB",
      "country_name": "United Kingdom",
      "continent": "europe",
      "jurisdiction": "GB",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "prior_restraint",
      "tactics": [
        "prior_restraint"
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      "leader_slug": "edward-heath",
      "leader_name": "Edward Heath",
      "issue_of_the_day": "Thalidomide, which caused severe birth defects in children whose mothers took it during pregnancy, had drawn nationwide public and parliamentary attention in Britain, and the House of Commons extensively debated the pending compensation settlement with the manufacturer on November 29, 1972.",
      "outcome": "reversed",
      "outcome_on": "1979-04-26",
      "outcome_note": "The European Court of Human Rights ruled on April 26, 1979, by eleven votes to nine, that the injunction against The Sunday Times had breached Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.",
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      "era": "1970s",
      "granularity": "anchor",
      "status": "historical",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "On November 17, 1972, the Divisional Court of the Queen's Bench Division, part of England's High Court, granted the Attorney General's request for an injunction stopping The Sunday Times from publishing an article about the drug thalidomide, on the ground that it would amount to contempt of court. The European Court of Human Rights ruled on April 26, 1979, by eleven votes to nine, that the injunction breached Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the treaty provision protecting freedom of expression.",
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