How athlete's not-so-secret affair bends UK law
Source: Agencies |
May 24, 2011, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
BRITAIN'S privacy rules are under assault by rambunctious journalists, Twitter users and even sports fans, as thousands defy a judge's order keeping the name of a well-known soccer star secret.
The disclosure of the sportsman's identity has made a mockery of recently introduced rules protecting public figures' privacy, raising questions about whether it was desirable - or even possible - to order journalists to keep a secret in an age where a single rogue tweet can be read around the world.
British Prime Minister David Cameron acknowledged the situation, saying it was "rather unsustainable when newspapers can't print something everyone is talking about." He promised a rethink of how the country balanced privacy and freedom speech.
The sportsman, whose name cannot be published, turned to the British courts to keep his name from being linked to that of a reality show contestant with whom he is alleged to have carried out an affair.
He sought anonymity, but the effort backfired as the case increasingly became a touchstone for arguments over what Britons know as "super-injunctions," sweeping legal measures that ban journalists from writing about something, or even writing about the fact that they can't write about something.
As civil libertarians debated the wisdom of super-injunctions, the soccer player's name increasingly spilled out into the public domain. And every time his legal team tried to plug a leak, several more sprung.
Imogen Thomas, the reality television show constant with whom the athlete was alleged to have carried out the affair, went to Britain's High Court to try to overturn the injunction. She was defeated, but a mysterious Twitter account allegedly revealed his name anyway, a move that swiftly drew national attention.
With the name increasingly being bandied about on soccer forums and in foreign publications, the media embargo was strained to the breaking point.
On Sunday, Scotland's Sunday Herald became the first British newspaper to flout the injunction, publishing a thinly censored photograph of the soccer star with only his eyes blacked out.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 娌狪CP璇侊細娌狪CP澶05050403鍙-1
- |
- 浜掕仈缃戞柊闂讳俊鎭湇鍔¤鍙瘉锛31120180004
- |
- 缃戠粶瑙嗗惉璁稿彲璇侊細0909346
- |
- 骞挎挱鐢佃鑺傜洰鍒朵綔璁稿彲璇侊細娌瓧绗354鍙
- |
- 澧炲肩數淇′笟鍔＄粡钀ヨ鍙瘉锛氭勃B2-20120012
Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
