The naming of Sir Fred Goodwin in the Commons looks like a Parliamentary “two fingers” to the former banker and his efforts to protect his privacy.
But it dramatically exposes mounting tensions over the way the rich and famous are stopping the media reporting on their affairs, business or otherwise.
Media organisations are concerned that privacy is the new libel, and forms the basis for injunctions increasingly obtained from judges to stop private information reaching the public domain.
No one knows how prevalent the practice is because along with the rise in injunctions are the so-called super-injunctions, where even an order’s existence is under wraps.
At least 30 of these are thought to have been taken out in the past two to three years, with up to 300 obtained over the past two decades.
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The concern is that while everyone can expect a right to privacy, information that may justify exposure in the public interest — and not just because it is of interest to the public — may be suppressed.
Tensions are being fuelled by the problems of enforcement. Not just MPs, under the guise of Parliamentary privilege, but bloggers in the relatively law-lite zone of the internet now publish where newspapers fear to tread.
Senior judges are aware of the problem. Mr Justice Tugendhat, the judge in charge of the High Court libel list, appears to be shifting the balance away from a too-ready dispensing of gagging orders.
Last January he lifted the order granted to John Terry, the Chelsea captain, over claims that he cheated on his wife with Vanessa Perroncel, the former girlfriend of his teammate Wayne Bridge.
He also ruled later that year that a sportsman, known as JIH, should not be granted anonymity in respect of reports over a sexual encounter. He was overruled by the Court of Appeal.
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But in that case Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, Master of the Rolls, accepted that the rise in anonymity orders prompted “concern” and urged that at least publicly available judgments in such cases should be given.
What next? Lord Neuberger reports soon with new rules on superinjunctions. He will have to guide courts to steer a middle course that commands media respect; or see privacy laws decided by MPs or bloggers on the internet.