Privacy - if you can afford it

In Britain with injunctions. Even worse with superinjunctions where you can't even report that there is an injunction. [Link]

Imogen Thomas, the former Big Brother contestant whose relationship with a married Premier League footballer was made the subject of a court gagging order, along with the Sun is seeking to overturn the injunction.

Thomas said on Monday she was "stunned" after Mr Justice Eady reserved judgment in the high court on whether to lift the gagging order and published his reasons for granting the injunction in April.

"Yet again my name and reputation have been trashed while the man I had a relationship with is able to hide," said Thomas, speaking outside the high court.

"What's more I can't even defend myself because I have been gagged. If this is the way privacy injunctions are supposed to work there is something seriously wrong with the law.

"I have read the judgment and I am stunned by how I am portrayed."

Thomas was speaking after Eady explained why he made an order banning journalists from reporting the identity of a footballer involved in a relationship with the reality television contestant.

He also issued a written account of his reasons for making the order after listening to arguments from lawyers representing the footballer, Thomas and the Sun newspaper at a private hearing. 

Thomas had previously claimed that she had been "thrown to the lions" because, unlike the soccer star, she did not have the money to pay for her name to be kept private.

The footballer won the injunction maintaining his anonymity in a high court hearing earlier this year.

He is one of a number of Premier League stars and other well-known public figures who have taken out injunctions to protect their privacy.