SEVERAL organisations campaigning for The Sun  to drop its Page Three topless model have been left red-faced after celebrating the feature's reported demise, only for it to reappear yesterday. 

A number of newspapers, including The Times  which is owned by the same media company as The Sun, had reported earlier this week that the tabloid had dropped the 45-year-old tradition, but it was never officially confirmed by The Sun.

In a deliberate snub to their rivals, Thursday's Sun featured a winking, topless woman on its third page inside a box headed "Clarifications and corrections". The caption mocked the "print and broadcast journalists who have spent the last two days talking and writing about us".

THE Evangelical Alliance (EA) was among a number of groups that had welcomed the apparent end of Page Three. The Alliance joined the campaign against Page Three in March last year (News, 7 March 2014).

The general director of the EA, Steve Clifford, said: "The discontinuation of Page Three represents a victory for all women, and for all of us who have long campaigned for a more decent and respectful press in the UK."

The EA's head of media, Chine Mbubaegbu, said that this was only the first battle in a war for the "dignified portrayal of all women. . . Since we believe that all are made in the image of God, we long for a society in which women are not objectified."

The organisation issued a second statement after Page Three returned on Thusday. Mr Clifford said that the newspaper had "vacuum of moral leadership" of which Page Three was a symptom. 

"Perhaps the time has come for advertisers to reconsider their relationship with The Sun," he said. "Page Three not only demeans women but it is the thin end of a very large billion-pound pornography industry."

He also called on members of the EA to stop buying weekday editions of the tabloid.

The apparent decision to stop publishing pictures of topless models had also been welcomed by politicians. The Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, Caroline Lucas, said on Tuesday: "Today is a very good day; but it's not the end of the story. Gender discrimination stalks women throughout their lives - at school, in the media, in their workplaces."

The Minister for Women and Equalities, Nicky Morgan, had also said that the move was "a small but significant step towards improving media portrayal of women and girls".

On Friday, The Sun  published a spread of photos of a model in lingerie on its second and third pages.