Sun will fight footballer gag in High Court today

The Sun will today attempt to mount a High Court challenge to lift the injunction banning the identification of a footballer who had an affair with Big Brother star Imogen Thomas.

The paper says it has instructed lawyers to ask the High Court to lift the gag on naming the Premier League player after a picture purporting to be him was splashed over the front page of the Sunday Herald in Scotland.

It adds: "The Sun is seeking a hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice where we will ask a judge to allow us to name the player known in legal documents only as CTB. Our move comes after Prime Minister David Cameron today described the privacy rulings affecting newspapers as 'unsustainable' and 'unfair'."

The Sun also claims: "Yesterday's disclosures will make it virtually impossible for the footballer's highly-paid lawyers to argue his name is not already in the public domain."

The times they are absurd, says The Times

The Times argues in a leader today it is absurd that it cannot tell readers the name of the well known journalist who could be prosecuted for contempt for mentioning a footballer on Twitter.

The leader says: "A high-profile journalist on a leading British newspaper has made a comment on Twitter about a Premier League footballer for which he, or she, now risks being prosecuted for contempt of court. For legal reasons, The Times is not at liberty to name the footballer, or the journalist, or the newspaper for which he, or she, works. This would remain true even if The Times was that newspaper, which may, or may not, be the case.

"All of this is absurd, and doubly so because you, the reader, very possibly already know all about it, including the bits that we are not at liberty to print. If you do not, and are sitting at a computer, you could probably find full details in a matter of moments. Although we may not tell you how."

The leader concludes: "Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, declared last week that the internet was 'making an ass of the law'. In fact, the law needs no such help. Contempt of court is a crime, but contempt for Britain’s injunction habit is close to universal."

• The Times is behind a paywall.
  

Sun wins fight to name SAS soldier on sex charges

The Sun has named an SAS soldier who is to stand trial accused of sex offences against young girls - after the paper's lawyers challenged an injunction.

The Sun says: "Corporal Ian Tuckley, 31, is said to have preyed on victims as young as six.Tuckley was arrested late last year, but The Sun is only able to name him now after fighting an injunction.Someone in Britain's Special Forces community claimed key evidence at the June trial could not be shared in open court or it would threaten "national security".

"The move gave rise to accusations that they were not protecting their operations - but their reputation. And our campaigning lawyers had the decision overturned."