Ruling due in celebrity injunction battle

A British celebrity who wants to keep his name out of a tabloid newspaper story about his alleged extra-marital activities will find out this week if he has won a battle at the UK’s highest court.

Five Supreme Court justices will announce their decision on Thursday.

Following a hearing in London last month, they reserved their decision and said an injunction would remain in place pending their ruling.

The man, referred to as PJS, has challenged a Court of Appeal decision that an order barring The Sun on Sunday from naming him should be lifted.

Publishers News Group Newspapers (NGN) won the first round of the privacy dispute in January when a High Court judge refused to impose an injunction.

PJS then challenged that decision and two Court of Appeal judges ruled in his favour.

NGN’s lawyers then successfully argued at a further hearing that the ban should go because the man had been named in articles abroad and his name could be found on the internet. The ruling in the newspaper’s favour led to the hearing before the panel of five justices.

At April’s hearing, PJS’s counsel said the discharge of the injunction would have “devastating consequences” for him and his children and lead to a “storm of harassment”.