Free speech at risk as celebrities use law to hide private lives

Free speech is being eroded as wealthy celebrities use legal "super-injunctions" to prevent publication of details about their private lives, campaigners fear.

The rich and famous using gagging orders to kill potentially damaging stories have caused a 50 per cent increase in the number of privacy cases heard in Britain's courts.

Three unnamed footballers and several top golfers, including world No 1 Tiger Woods and Europe's Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie, have obtained High Court super-injunctions.

Jonathan Cooper, a leading privacy barrister, said: "Privacy rights cannot be used to undermine free speech, and vice versa. Where there is a public interest in interfering with privacy rights, the media must be entitled to publish.

"There is a real fear that emergency injunctions are becoming increasingly common, whereby a judge can grant an interim injunction at very short notice without a full and proper hearing."

A standard injunction stops publication of what happens in court but a super-injunction prevents any details about the people involved being made public.

England footballer Wayne Rooney reportedly considered applying for a super-injunction to stop publication of allegations linking him to a prostitute appearing in the News of the World, but was advised that because of previous stories on his private life he would fail.