Scottish Newspapers

Imogen Thomas 

The editor of a Scottish newspaper that has identified a premier league footballer alleged to have had an affair with model Imogen Thomas (pictured) said today he "absolutely did not take the decision lightly".

But speaking to Journalism.co.uk this afternoon he said he was "absolutely confident of his position" when the newspaper was sent to print.

"The legal position is absolutely clear, we don't publish in England and we are not covered by the superinjunction."

Neither the image, editorial or article were published online in order to prevent the newspaper being accused of distributing outside of Scotland.

The newspaper – which along with its editor is not named here for legal reasons – devoted the front page of today's edition to a large picture of the footballer's face with a black band across his eyes with the word "censored" in it.

The black band does little to mask the player's identity however.

Below the picture on the newspaper's front page is the text: "Everyone knows that this is the footballer accused of using the courts to keep allegations of a sexual affair secret. But we weren't supposed to tell you that ..."

The player is named in a news article inside the paper and the wider issue of injunctions is addressed in an editorial.

Asked what led to the decision over today's front page, editorial and article, the editor said:

"We were doing a big package in the newspaper on the ridiculous situation that newspapers currently face, in that they can't publish information that everyone can access within seconds, and it seemed that this was a way to highlight that.

"Let me be clear, we are not interested in at all in the allegations or the truth of the allegations.

"What we are interested in is the situation that newspapers are currently prevented from publishing information that everyone can access within seconds.

"Who doesn't know the name of that person? And how long would it be before they found out?"

The player identified by the newspaper has been named repeatedly on Twitter over the last few days.

On Wednesday a premier league footballer – named in court documents only as "CTB" – launched legal proceedings against Twitter and "persons unknown", understood to be Twitter users responsible for an account on the site that purported to name several celebrities that had allegedly taken out superinjunctions or anonymised injunctions.

The claim follows a high court hearing on Monday, in which Thomas and News Group Newspapers, which publishes the Sun and the News of the World, tried and failed to have the right to anonymity of a "CTB" overturned.

Mr Justice Eady, who issued a temporary injunction in the case in March, ruled against the newspaper, arguing in a written statement that there was "no suggestion of any legitimate public interest in publishing such material".