There is a fundamental difference between using a private investigator at any given time to turn around a story on tittle-tattle, or to fish for stories and monitor people's lives, and to make a careful, considered decision to carry out a breach of the law in order to expose wrongdoing.

CNN: Opinion: Why journalists need public interest defense

Mr Goldsmith, who has been an MP since last year, said revealing the contents of the e-mails would have been "very uncomfortable" at a time when he was seeking election to Parliament, because of the revelation of "all kinds of tittle-tattle which I would have been better off without".

BBC: Tory MP Zac Goldsmith defends super-injunction