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May 23, 2011

The Sun attempts to overturn footballer’s gagging order

By andrew

The Sun will this afternoon again attempt to lift an injunction banning it from naming a footballer alleged to have had an affair with former Miss Wales Imogen Thomas.

According to a statement that appeared on its website earlier today, the newspaper’s lawyer ‘leapt into action’after ‘Britain’s worst-kept secret was close to becoming public knowledge”.

Yesterday, the Glasgow-based  Sunday Herald became the first UK newspaper to name the footballer at the centre of the  gagging row, claiming the injunction covering the identity of the footballer does not appear to apply to Scottish newspapers.

A Sun spokesman is quoted on the website as saying:

Following publication on the front page of a Scottish newspaper it is clear this injunction is unworkable.

When the Prime Minister says on breakfast television that he knows the identity of the footballer, it is time for the courts to do the right thing and end a situation where readers of some newspapers but not others are allowed to know the worst kept secret in the country.

We have asked our lawyers to make an application at the High Court and await the outcome with great interest.”

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On ITV’s Daybreak programme this morning, Prime Minister David Cameron said the privacy laws were ‘unfair’on the press, and described the current situation as being ‘rather unsustainable”.

The Sun unsuccessfully attempted to overturn the injunction last week.

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