Max Mosley's victory will force Sunday tabloid newspaper editors to ask increasingly demanding questions when they are faced with the kiss-and-tell stories that have long been a staple of Britain's bestselling titles.

Current and former tabloid editors said that it would now become necessary to find an extra justification for publication of an article about an affair or sexual relationship. Sir Nicholas Lloyd, who edited the Daily Express for a decade, said: “Kiss-and-tells are going to have to be much more carefully looked at, to see if [they] can be justified in the public interest.”

However, while yesterday's Mosley judgment sets a broad principle, Mr Justice Eady was careful to insist that it did not set a precedent - meaning that any future cases will have to be judged on their merits. That lack of certainty will mean many more privacy cases going to court.

Kelvin MacKenzie, former Editor of The Sun, said: “What this means is that the lawyer becomes more and more central in these kinds of stories - but the difficulty is that nobody knows where the line is before publication. What's worrying is that in this case the judge opted to give weight to the evidence given by the women, but not that given by the journalists.”

Serving editors were more cautious about commenting on the record, but there is increasing frustration that one judge in particular is giving a series of rulings - which make it easy for celebrities to control what is written about them - without the issue being debated in Parliament.

However, the kiss-and-tell stories are already of less interest to readers, Mr MacKenzie said. “I'm less gloomy about this than some, because kiss-and-tell is not selling papers. But what I'd really like to see is judges declare their own sexual interests so we know they are not biased.”

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