UK: Government refuses to outlaw celebrity gagging orders

Oliver Wright reports:

Ministers have ruled out reforming Britain’s privacy laws or bringing in new legislation to stop super-injunctions silencing the media, the Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke said yesterday.

Launching the Government’s draft Libel Bill, Mr Clarke said such a move would be “wildly controversial” and there was no legislative time available in Parliament to get it done.

His comments will be a blow to media organisations and freedom of speech campaigners, who have become increasingly alarmed by the use of super-injunctions in the courts to silence the press on privacy grounds.

Read more in The Independent.