UPDATED 1.09PM: Convicted double murderer Scott Watson has won a court battle which could allow him to meet a journalist behind bars and break his 17-year silence.

Watson sought a judicial review in the High Court at Christchurch last month after claiming that the chief executive of Corrections refused to allow him to meet North and South reporter Mike White.

Watson is currently serving a 17-year sentence for the 1998 New Year's Day murders of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope in the Marlborough Sounds.

White is thankful Justice Dunningham kept an open mind in her decision. 

"It would've been an easy decision to make just to support the decision of the Corrections Department because they are legally tasked with making that decision but [Dunningham] looked beyond that," he said. 

White believes there's still a lot of water to go under the bridge before an interview with Scott Watson can take place.

Justice Dunningham found Corrections' stance to have been "unreasonable".

While Justice Dunningham said there was "no rational basis for declining a face-to-face interview between White and Mr Watson", there may be conditions, particularly as to the format of the interviews, and controls on the distribution of any recorded materials, that the chief executive of Corrections may wish to impose when revisiting the decision.

Canterbury University Dean of Law Chris Gallavin said Corrections must now "reconsider" its decision, but in reality it only has one option.

Gallavin believes "Corrections don't have a leg to stand on to refuse the interview" and "unreasonableness" is an unusual reason to quash a decision in a judicial review.

• Chris Gallavin: Scott Watson's interview

Parole will be considered next month. His lawyer Kerry Cook claimed any impact on victims was overruled by a possible miscarriage of justice.

Cook told the court that since his arrest, trial and conviction the public had only heard four words from him.

"'Not guilty', and 'you're wrong', following the jury's verdict of guilty," Cook said.

"He now wishes to talk, and my principal submission is that the chief executive of the Department of Corrections unreasonably stopped New Zealanders from having the opportunity to listen."

Watson had gained hope from the cases of David Bain and Teina Pora, Cook said, and he hoped the public would also lend their support to his claims of a miscarriage of justice.

Corrections lawyer Paul Rishworth told the court the chief executive made his decision in line with the law, and balanced many different factors.

"He balanced those interests, he balanced freedom of expression, miscarriage of justice concerns, and made a decision that was his to make," he said.