This article titled “Injunction ruling enables celebrities to hide sex lives, says top lawyer” was written by Jasper Jackson, for theguardian.com on Wednesday 6th April 2016 18.14 UTCJohn Fawcett has joined the firm as Partner
A leading media lawyer has claimed that celebrities have been given carte blanche to use their children to prevent stories about their sex lives being published, after a court upheld an injunction against the Sun on Sunday.
The court of appeal ruled last month that the story about a threesome involving a “well-known” individual, who is in an open relationship, should not be published in part because of the impact on the couple’s children.
Mark Stephens, who represented Julian Assange during his fight against extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges, told Radio 4’s Media Show that the “watershed” ruling meant celebrities could use their children to prevent a free press.
“One of the problems we have is that effectively what we’ve got is a watershed moment, an inflection moment,” said Stephens. “The rich and famous with children are now going to be able to put forward the saccharine images … their primped and preened images by their spin doctors and the public won’t be able to have them gainsaid by the free press.”
“Now we are seeing children thrown under the bus, the legal bus, to prevent stories coming out. It seems to me not without notice that one of the judges was a family law judge and therefore brought that very perspective of the children.”
“The message to celebrities that goes out is that if you are going to have a ménage à trois or an open relationship make sure you’ve got children.”
However, Sara Mansoori, another lawyer who has represented phone-hacking victims at the Leveson inquiry into the media said the ruling would not be an invitation for celebrities to put their children in the public eye.
“It’s an important factor, it depends on the age of children, it depends on the circumstances of each case. The courts are going to take that into account,” she said. “I think the courts will look at each case individually, and if you are using your children to that end you will be able to protect yourselves behind them.
“But I think the courts will look at various factors relating to the children, the ages of the children and how it was likely to affect them. In this case it’s said they were likely to find it on the internet and suffer harassment in due course.”
Mansoori had earlier drawn attention to the judge’s ruling that the celebrity in question had also previously indicated an open relationship with his partner, meaning the Sun on Sunday story would not be at odds with the persona presented to the public.
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