Society of Editors’ boss Bob Satchwell today branded as “absurd” the ban on naming a footballer alleged to have taken out a superinjunction over claims he had an extramarital affair.

The Sunday Herald yesterday published the name of the footballer which has already been widely circulated on the US-based social networking website Twitter.

Neither Twitter not the Herald are subject to the jurisdiction of the English courts, but the player’s name still cannot be published in English newspapers, which are.

SoE executive director Mr Satchwell said the fact that you could read about the story in one part of the UK but not in others highlighted the absurdity of the situation.

He said:  “When Parliament bought in the Human Rights Act, the government at the time realised the problem of a clash between privacy and freedom of expression.

“Prompted by media organisations they said judges should take special care of freedom of expression but some judges appeared not to be giving it sufficient consideration.  Freedom of expression should only be curtailed when the issues of privacy are extremely serious.”

Prime Minister David Cameron has also entered the debate, saying this morning that he thought current privacy rules are “unfair” on the press.

“It is rather unsustainable, this situation, where newspapers can’t print something that clearly everybody else is talking about, but there’s a difficulty here because the law is the law and the judges must interpret what the law is,” he said.

“What I’ve said in the past is, the danger is that judgments are effectively writing a new law which is what Parliament is meant to do.

“So I think the Government, Parliament, has got to take some time out, have a proper look at this, have a think about what we can do, but I’m not sure there is going to be a simple answer.”

He added: “It’s not fair on the newspapers if all the social media can report this and the newspapers can’t, so the law and the practice has got to catch up with how people consume media today.”