A council has dropped a five-year, £200,000 legal campaign trying to unmask a blogger called Mr Monkey, who made allegations of impropriety against four senior members of the authority.
The decision comes following a Freedom of Information request made by the Guardian, which forced South Tyneside council to admit spending £213,734 pursuing the identity of Mr Monkey in a Californian court, which is where Mr Monkey’s WordPress blog is hosted.