The superinjunction saga took a new twist today when lawyers acting for [REDACTED] launched legal action against Twitter, after the site’s users happily spread the names of celebrities named in superinjunctions.
Given that Twitter is based in California, well beyond the jurisdiction of the British courts, it’s hard to see how this is going to work. However, could any UK-based people who read or retweeted the offending messages be in trouble? Contempt of court (for that is what it is) quite a serious offence.
I’m not sure what to think about superinjunctions. I do believe that tabloid newspapers go too far with intrusions into the private lives of celebrities. Yes, you can say that celebrities court publicity and invite the media in to a certain extent – but I don’t think that justifies rifling through their bins, unless there’s a real (really genuine) public interest reason.
On the other hand, I find it unsettling that so many of these injunctions are issued and the effect on free speech. I’m not bothered about celebrity shagging stories, but injunctions have also been used in more serious matters. It is the latter that we need to be worried about, not whether person A is inserting part B into person C.