The high court has ruled in no uncertain terms that a public interest defence isn’t about the public being interested

Do you remember that tabloid staple, the shagging footballer? The love rat who played away, scoring with a casually met blonde who duly capitalised on her encounter with a spot of what used to be fondly known as kiss’n’tell?

We don’t read so much about such beasts these days. I’m guessing this is not because young footballers have become more chaste or God-fearing. It’s because newspapers have become unable to persuade judges that it is in the public interest for the striker’s marital misdemeanours to be splattered all over their front page.

Editors may hope that, now we are a sovereign nation again, an Englishman's right to read a juicy shagging story will be restored

In general it is inevitable – and no bad thing – that the public interest purpose of journalism is put under scrutiny

Alan Rusbridger, a former editor of the Guardian, is principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and author of News and How to Use it