A court order banning The Royal Gazette from publishing information which Government wants to keep secret remained in place last night.

But this newspaper pledged to fight the injunction — imposed by Puisne Judge Geoffrey Bell late on Tuesday evening — on the grounds that citizens have a right to know.

Attorney General Kim Wilson obtained the temporary gag from the Supreme Court after making an ex parte application, meaning in the absence of and without legal representation for The Royal Gazette.

Her handwritten application cited "breach of confidence" as the cause of the action.

Mr. Justice Bell, one of the Island's commercial judges, agreed to her request to ban publication of any article concerning the information for a 72-hour period.

A hearing with both parties will take place today, when The Royal Gazette's lawyer, Jeffrey Elkinson, will argue that publication of the information would be in the public interest.

Government lost its last legal bid to gag the media, over the disclosure of revelations from the Bermuda Housing Corporation police files. Its doomed bid to restrict the freedom of the press cost taxpayers at least $140,000.