LONDON — Cliff Richard, a British singer and pop star, was awarded about $280,000 in damages by the High Court on Wednesday after bringing legal action against the BBC, which he had accused of a “serious invasion” of his privacy with its reporting of a police raid on his home in 2014.

The raid followed a sexual allegation against Mr. Richard, 77, relating to a teenage boy in the 1980s. Mr. Richard has always strongly denied the accusation, and no charges were ever brought against him.

British journalists and news executives expressed concern about the precedent established by the ruling, saying it would have profound repercussions for their freedom to report criminal cases because it could make it illegal to identify suspects before they are formally charged by the police.

BBC reporters covered the 2014 raid closely, using a helicopter hovering over the singer’s apartment in Sunningdale, west of London. Mr. Richard, who was knighted as Sir Cliff Richard in 1995 and who spends much of his time at residences in Barbados and Portugal, was in Portugal at the time.