Ian Burrell: Press pounce on defensive error to snatch victory

Comment

Frank Lampard uses the expression "a man's man" to describe John Terry, who at 6ft 2in and more than 14 stone is one of the most effective stoppers in world football. Only this was one defensive block which the England and Chelsea centre back failed to make.

In rushing to the courts to gag the News of the World from publishing allegations of his extra-marital affair with the ex-girlfriend of former team-mate Wayne Bridge, Terry has inadvertently gifted a victory to media organisations fighting the growing tendency of the rich and powerful to hide behind super-injunctions.

Mr Justice Tugendhat yesterday threw out a blanket gagging order – banning even the mention of an injunction – obtained last Friday by Schillings, the defamation lawyers to the stars. Schillings, who represents Naomi Campbell and Madonna as well as the £170,000-a-week Terry, had been encouraged by a succession of pro-privacy judgments from the senior judge for libel, Mr Justice Eady, who has been criticised for introducing a privacy law by the back door.

But the tide is turning in favour of the media's right of freedom of expression. In October, the defamation law firm Carter Ruck was accused of contempt of Parliament after it tried to use a super-injunction obtained on behalf of the oil-trading firm Trafigura to prevent the reporting of questions from MPs on the dumping of toxic waste.

Earlier this week the Supreme Court lifted a ban on naming suspected terrorists, saying they could not "hide behind a cloak of anonymity".

Mr Justice Tugendhat said yesterday: "Freedom to live as one chooses is one of the most valuable freedoms. But so is the freedom to criticise – within the limits of the law – the conduct of other members of society as being socially harmful, or wrong."

The judge was unhappy that Terry obtained his original injunction by claiming details of his affair were to be published by "persons unknown", even though Schillings had evidence that indicated it was the News of the World that intended to reveal the footballer's affair with lingerie model Vanessa Perroncel. The failure to identify the opposing party meant that the judge did not hear legal argument from News Group, owners of the News of the World. "Notice has not been given to any newspaper when it should have been and, as a result, I have not had the benefit of arguments in opposition to the application," said the judge.

Despite the gagging order, details of the affair had leaked onto the micro-messaging site Twitter, following an article in The Daily Telegraph yesterday that did not name the parties. In this era of instant messaging, the judge said he did "not find it credible" that one of the interested parties was not aware of the affair. Terry – "a very robust personality" – was primarily concerned with how the story might affect his sponsorship deals with Umbro, Samsung and Nationwide.