Peter Kafka

Recent Posts by Peter Kafka

U.K. Media Finally Start Ignoring Law That Prevents Them From Typing “Ryan Giggs” (Video)

Just about everyone in the U.K.–and lots of people outside of the country–knows that soccer star Ryan Giggs is rumored to have had an affair with a reality TV star.

They also know that Giggs has gotten the English courts to decree that the media can’t discuss any of this, including his name or the fact that he’s gotten the courts to do this. Or to identify him as the celebrity demanding that Twitter identify people who are using his name on the service.

You can, of course, read all about Giggs on Twitter, Facebook, and Web sites published around the world, though U.K.-based publications have kept Giggs’s name off their own Web sites for the last few days.

So have some publications outside the U.K., including the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, which, like this Web site, is owned by News Corp. Parmy Olson, London bureau chief for New York-based Forbes.com, identified Giggs yesterday.

But now that wall seems to have crumbled, courtesy of a British lawmaker who spoke Giggs’s name aloud on the floor of Parliament today: Now everyone from the Financial Times (registration required) to the BBC to the Daily Mail has gone ahead and included the Manchester United star’s name in their headlines.

For the record, the injunction against printing or saying Giggs’s name aloud still stands. Here’s a clip, courtesy of Google’s YouTube, of MP John Hemming doing just that (his argument, disputed by some of his colleagues, is that he’s privileged to speak in Parliament.)

[Image credit: Wikipedia]

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