Beckileaks: hacked emails tarnish Beckham’s reputation, and highlight weakness of UK gag orders

A British high court injunction blocking the publication of footballer David Beckham’s hacked personal emails has been rendered worthless after a consortium of European media outlets from Romania to France published anyway.

Beckham’s team expressed deep frustration that “stolen information”, which had been prohibited from publication by the high court, had come to light, and that it was no longer possible to keep the information confidential.

In December, the high court had accepted that emails written by Beckham and his PR advisers were stolen from a Portuguese company associated with Beckham’s spokesman, Simon Oliveira, and issued an injunction preventing The Sunday Times from publishing.

However, several media organisations, including Germany’s Der Spiegel and France’s L’Equipe published details of the cache at the weekend. They reported how Beckham was angry at not being granted a knighthood in 2013, that the honours committee was concerned about his tax affairs, and that he was annoyed to be asked for a major cash donation to Unicef, of which he is a global ambassador.

British newspapers including The Sun and the Daily Mail publishedtheir own stories soon afterwards despite the injunction. “It is a weakness in the law,” said one source close to Beckham.

“Because it is across multiple jurisdictions, it is almost impossible to do anything of substance.”