Journalists don't need to live by very complex moral codes. If you're an editor (past or present) or a big-name writer, and you've seen, close up, the rapacious iniquity of Britain's libel laws, then there's one thing you instinctively shouldn't do: sue.

And if you're an intelligent, highly paid TV star as well as all of the above, and you've had an embarrassing love affair, then there's one, rather longer, word you shouldn't dare mutter, either: superinjunction.

No wonder Andrew Marr grew "uneasy" as Private Eye pared away his expensive legal bulwarks. Perhaps he also felt a little ashamed about spending so much money to suppress a guilty secret that (frankly) everyone in the news business had registered from the start. Perhaps, too, there's a simple moral to take away from this debacle.

Journalists aren't "ordinary people". Their job is to gather news, not suppress it. If they themselves become news, they're stuck with taking it on the chin. And as for protecting wives or kids, then the rules of rough trade still operate. If you're thinking of doing something that could hurt them: don't.