England footballer's super-injunction stifles media exposé



Gagged: An England footballer has obtained a super-injunction to prevent a newspaper exposé

An England footballer has obtained a super-injunction to prevent the media revealing details of his private life.

He obtained the legal order on Friday night after discovering that a Sunday newspaper was planning to publish an exposé.

The star is the latest in a string of high-profile figures using draconian privacy laws to block the media from reporting on matters they would rather keep secret.

The injunction has reignited the row over judges allowing celebrities to restrict the public's right to know the truth.



MPs and civil liberties campaigners have expressed alarm at the ease with which celebrities can obtain orders to gag the press.

Celebrities are increasingly relying on the injunctions to quash negative stories, rather than using the libel courts to challenge them.

Critics say that many of those who seek injunctions are primarily concerned with protecting their commercial interests and not their privacy.

In January, a gagging order preventing newspapers from reporting that England football star John Terry had had an affair with Vanessa Perroncel, the ex-girlfriend of his England teammate Wayne Bridge, was lifted.

Golfer Colin Montgomerie (left) recently obtained a super-injunction to prevent the reporting of matters dealing with his private life. In January, a gagging order preventing newspapers from reporting that footballer John Terry had had an affair was lifted

Mr Justice Tugendhat decided he should lift the injunction because Terry's main concern had been protecting his lucrative sponsorship deals, rather than his private life.



Last week golfer Colin Montgomerie, who has a fortune of £25million, obtained a super-injunction designed to prevent the reporting of matters dealing with his private life.

The existence of the latest super-injunction - so called because the media are not even allowed to report details of their existence - is in the public domain now only because a newspaper on which it was not served published a report about it.