29 Sep 2014

Slater abandons bid to get emails back

1:05 pm on 29 September 2014

Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater has abandoned his High Court bid to get his emails back.

Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater.

Blogger Cameron Slater. Photo: Supplied

Mr Slater's lawyer John Billington QC told the High Court in Auckland he would not be continuing with the legal action launched following the release of investigative journalist Nicky Hager's book Dirty Politics.

The move means the undertaking by the media not to publish Mr Slater's emails containing personal information is no longer in force.

According to the agreement previously read out in court, that included information about Mr Slater's "wife and children, his medical records, the death of his mother and information of a similar nature."

And Mr Slater could also be in line for a large legal bill. Representing the publisher of the New Zealand Herald, Julian Miles QC, told Justice Peters the media would be seeking costs.

Justice Peters told lawyers for both sides to file submissions on the matter of costs.

The legal action began after Mr Hager's book was published and a person purporting to be the hacker of communications, that formed the basis of the book, began releasing Mr Slater's emails and personal Facebook messages.

The hacker later said he was quitting before the decisions of the court.

Tweeting on the whaledump2 account, the hacker said he was destroying and disposing of "every device used in this operation".

There has been no action on the account since then.

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