Super-injunctions came under renewed scrutiny today after a list of celebrities who have allegedly obtained gagging orders was posted on Twitter.
The account which published the names yesterday attracted more than 44,000 followers within 24 hours, and the hashtag #superinjunctions is being tweeted by so many people that it became the highest-ranked "trending topic" in Britain.
Leading media lawyers said that the widespread online discussion of the identities of celebrities who have obtained gagging orders exposed serious flaws with super-injunctions, which are primarily aimed to preventing the publication of stories in the mainstream media.
Jemima Khan, who was falsely identified as being one of the subjects of a super-injunction, today criticised internet users for sending her "vile hate tweets".
She has vehemently denied taking out a super-injunction to prevent the publication of alleged intimate pictures of her and Jeremy Clarkson.
The socialite was named on Twitter alongside a host of other celebrities who, it was claimed, had taken out draconian gagging orders to prevent details of their private lives emerging.
This morning she tweeted: “I hope the people who made this story up realise that my sons will be bullied at school because of it. Plus I'm getting vile hate tweets.”
The socialite said she was particularly concerned about her elder son, adding: “My 14 year old would never talk to me again. He's painfully shy and hates any fuss."
Solicitor Mark Stephens today said he believed super-injunctions were being brought into disrespect and disrepute.
"We have seen people who have absolutely unblemished records and personalities being named quite wrongly as having taken out super injunctions," he said.
"And on the other hand, we have also got a problem with super-injunctions themselves. We have got a legal problem in the sense that they are almost discriminatory justice.
"Not a single woman has taken out a super injunction and as a result of that, it is only the men. Invariably they are rich men because it costs between £50,000 and £100,000 to get a super-injunction."
He added: "On a more practical and prosaic level, if you are getting an injunction then in those circumstances you are doing nothing much more than painting a target on your back waiting for the Tweeterati and the blogosphere to come and get you to find out who you are and put the information up there.
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