A HEREFORD campaigner has staged a protest over the Hereford Times’ successful challenge to overturn a court order banning identification of an SAS soldier.

Martin Wyness was in High Town last Friday claiming SAS soldiers should not be named by the media under any circumstances, including when they appear in court charged with a criminal offence.

The Hereford Times’ successful challenge to the ban was agreed by the District Judge.

A similar challenge by the Hereford Times and other media has also been made to prevent inquests into the deaths of three SAS soldiers being held under conditions of secrecy.

These challenges have also been successful.

Mr Wyness, who stood for the Liberal Democrats in the 2007 council elections, was previously a Green Party activist.

He has also been involved in other protests including the ongoing saga to stop homes being built near Bullinghope, the campaign to halt the recently built Hereford Flood Defence project and the unsuccessful fight to stop the Rotherwas access road being built across part of the Rotherwas Ribbon.

Mr Wyness, of Harold Street, St James, is also known to the authorities in London after he put a facemask on one of the famous Chinese terracotta warriors in the British Museum to highlight pollution issues.

Criminal trespass charges were dropped against Mr Wyness when he and his daughter were arrested following anti-whaling protests at the Japanese Embassy in the capital last October.

Hereford Times editor Liz Griffin said: “We welcome all our readers’ comments about the paper and they are all carefully considered.”