When Rupert Murdoch took over the Wall Street Journal, the joke was that pictures of topless women would soon appear in the stipple portrait style that has long graced the pages of the business newspaper.

At the US Supreme Court today, the two sides of Mr Murdoch’s News Corporation – serious news and entertainment – will be front and centre once again, this time as the company argues a case experts say represents the most important test of free speech to be heard by the court in three decades.