There’s an update in the high-profile case of the media in England and Wales wanting to report on celebrity’s alleged extra-marital threesome.
As iMediaEthics previously reported, the battle started earlier this year when the Sun on Sunday wanted to publish a story about a celebrity entertainer couple, who are currently referred to by the pseudonyms PJS and YMA. PJS is accused of having an extramarital affair with someone called AB, and later a threesome with AB and AB’s partner, CD. AB went to the the Sun on Sunday with the story but PJS and YMA successfully obtained an injunction from the Court of Appeal to prevent the media from reporting on the story or their names.
Despite the injunction barring media in England and Wales from identification, the celebrity couple at the center of the allegations has been named in media in the U.S. and Scotland.
This week, the Sun on Sunday appealed the injunction, pointing to the media coverage outside of England and Wales as its justification.
“Lawyers for News Group Newspapers, on behalf of the Sun On Sunday, had told the court of appeal that the celebrity had already been named so widely online and in publications in the US and Scotland that the injunction was effectively redundant and unenforceable,” the Guardian reported April 15.
“The publication of stories abroad means almost two billion people worldwide are now free to read who the couple are,” the Sun wrote April 15. “But we are still banned from telling you. The Sun on Sunday will today try to overturn the injunction in the Court of Appeal.”
While the ruling is expected to be released Monday, April 18, Lord Justice Jackson, one of the judges reviewing the appeal to drop the injunction, advised PJA and YMA that “sooner or later” their children “will learn about this,” the Telegraph reported.
“The media storm would be devastating for (PJS) and for the children if the injunction was lifted,” Desmond Browne, who is representing PJS, said in court, according to the Telegraph.
The Sun noted that “an international paper, printed in London,” broke the injunction because it included the name of a blog that had identified PJS and YMA. However, the Sun did not name what the international paper was named.
Meanwhile, Google UK has deleted links to stories that name the couple and break the injunction, the Telegraph reported. This means that people searching Google in the UK won’t have the links, but Google users outside of the UK aren’t affected.
iMediaEthics has written to Google and PJS’s lawyer.