Footballer obtains gagging order as concerns mount over injunctions

Published on 14/05/2011 14:00

A MARRIED Premier League footballer is the latest celebrity to take legal action to stop allegations being published about his private life, it emerged yesterday.

A tabloid newspaper said that the star had used his "wealth and power" to silence its reports.

The latest case will add to growing concern about the use of injunctions and "super-injunctions" - whose very existence cannot be reported - to prevent publication of details about the private lives of well-known people.

Prime Minister David Cameron is among those who have expressed disquiet about the issue.

Last month Cameron admitted that he was "a little uneasy" that judges were using the European Convention on Human Rights "to deliver a sort of privacy law without parliament saying so".

It was reported yesterday that the rich and famous have obtained almost 80 gagging orders in British courts in six years, blocking publication of intimate details about their private lives.

A total of 18 have been granted already this year, compared with just five in the whole of 2005, it added. They have also issued 12 super-injunctions, which ban the media from referring to their existence.

The newspaper found that injunctions had been obtained by nine footballers, nine actors, four pop stars, six wealthy businessmen and women, a senior civil servant and an MP.

Last week a list of celebrities alleged to have tried to cover up sexual indiscretions by obtaining court gagging orders was published, along with details of their actions, on social networking site Twitter.