Yesterday it upheld an injunction brought by the individual stopping anyone in England and Wales revealing his sexual encounter with another couple.
The court (Lord Mance pictured above) effectively said that his right to privacy trumped the right to freedom of speech enjoyed by the press and by the former sexual partner who wanted to ‘kiss and tell’.
It said the story was “prurient” and that the public had no right to know about the sexual activities of celebrities, no matter how “unappealing” they might seem.
The Sun today published nine “classic Sun stories” which it said “we would not longer be able to publish” under yesterday’s ruling.
They include:
Pop star Zayn Malik’s “romp” with a Swedish club promoter behind the back of his fiancee
Comic Jason Manford’s extra-marital “romp” with a “plus-size model” and then his bid to “silence her with cash”
Boxer Amir Khan bombarding a woman with “lewd texts urging her to perform sex acts on him” behind the back of his pregnant wife.
In a leader column, The Sun said yesterday’s judgment was “illlogical and idiotic” and it “exposed” the five judges as “out-of-touch old duffers with a predictably contemptuous snobbery towards popular papers and our millions of readers”.
It said: “It is palpably absurd to keep our readers in England and Wales from seeing information available to billions online.
“Especially when the excuses, such as newspaper publicity being somehow worse than online publicity, are so thin.
“This is a couple who, while we don’t doubt their parenting, use their kids for photo ops yet now want to ‘protect their privacy’ to silence an embarrassing story.
“More sinister, though, is the judges’ ruling that kiss-and-tell stories are not ‘in the public interest’ unless the subject holds public office or ‘a misleading public impression’ is being corrected.”
The paper said tat the Supreme Court judges have “have sneered at tabloid readers and created a charter for cheating celebs, especially those with kids. Any caught with their pants down can use the children as a Get Out Of Jail Free card.
“And their pricey lawyers are already eyeing up new holiday homes in Tuscany.”
Yesterday’s judgment cited Max Mosley’s 2008 legal victory over the News of the World, when the High Court found the tabloid invaded his privacy with revelations about an extra-maritalorgy involving five paid dominatrices.
Writing in The Guardian Mosley said: “It is difficult to imagine anything more trivial than a private threesome involving a celebrity. Presumably it’s not even a particularly rare occurrence, like the actor with the prostitute who the press is also desperate to expose. You would have to be a very committed curtain twitcher to want to know. It’s not news, whatever else it is.”
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