A Quebec judge has rejected Karla Homolka's request for a sweeping court injunction that would have silenced media coverage of her life outside prison walls.

Justice Paul-Marcel Bellavance of Quebec Superior Court ruled Wednesday evening that granting the injunction would be a danger to freedom of the press.

"One day or another, after 12 years of detention, Karla Teale must face the Canadian public and the Canadian media," said Bellavance. (Teale being the legal name adopted by Homolka).

The judge also said the public has the right to know Homolka's whereabouts because of the crimes she committed.

Homolka's lawyers had petitioned Quebec Superior Court to impose a ban that would prevent the media from reporting on her home address, photographing or contacting her. They argued that the attention would put their client's life in danger.

"The injunction is necessary to rule out a risk that is real and significant," said Walid Hijazi, one of Homolka's lawyers. "This woman is alone and without resources."

Christian Lachance, another Homolka lawyer, said they might appeal the judge's ruling. She said the judge's ruling leaves her vulnerable. "As I said in court, there's people who want her dead,'' he said, referring to death threats against Homolka on the Internet.

Christian Leblanc, a lawyer representing several media outlets fighting the injunction request, argued that journalists must be allowed to do their job.

"She (Homolka) is one of Canada's most notorious criminals and the public has the right to be informed of her release,'' said Leblanc outside the court.

Homolka appeals restrictions

Meanwhile, CTV News reported that Homolka is appealing the range of restrictions placed on her eventual freedom, and that her lawyers have filed a notice of appeal of the Section 810 order under the Criminal Code.

Earlier this month, Judge Jean Beaulieu in Joliette, Que. slapped Homolka with the restrictions. She could be sent to jail for 24 months if she were to violate any of those conditions, which include having to report to police once a month and giving 96 hours notice if she wants to leave Quebec.

A spokesperson for Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant said no comment can be made because the matter is now under appeal.

Tim Danson, the lawyer for victims' families, calls Homolka's decision to appeal "deeply disturbing."

"I believe she represents a real serious threat to public safety and, while we're pleased with the conditions that we got in Joliette, Quebec last month, it really is a band-aid solution," Danson told CTV's Mike Duffy in an interview on Newsnet's Countdown.

"But it's something, and the fact that Karla Homolka doesn't even want those conditions is disconcerting to say the least."

Convicted in the early 1990s of manslaughter in the sex slayings of teenagers Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy, Homolka is at the end of her 12-year sentence.

Her release could be as early as Thursday.

The details of Homolka's case for a media ban were outlined in an affidavit released on Tuesday.

In it, Homolka claims that written and verbal threats, including Internet death pools, have her living in constant fear of a vengeful public and the media that informs it.

"I, Karla Teale," she writes under her new legal name, "have been living in a climate of hate and vengeance for the last 12 years."

"Given the events that happened during my incarceration and the interest surrounding my release, I am convinced that some individuals wish to render a public service by assassinating me."

In order to live her post-prison life as anonymously as possible, she wanted a wide-ranging injunction to prevent media from trying to obtain any information about her, including her address, telephone number, her movements and relationships.

The intention, according to the motion, was to protect her "basic rights under the federal Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Quebec Civil Code."

"As far as I know, nothing has been done to safeguard my security after my release from prison, and the thought of being relentlessly pursued, hunted down and followed when I won't have any protection makes me fear for my life," Homolka wrote in the accompanying affidavit.

Author Steven Williams says he doesn't believe Homolka really believes her life is in danger.

"My opinion is that it's a ploy, it's a strategy," he tells CTV's Lisa LaFlamme. "She's smarter than that, she knows her life isn't in danger."

Williams says his insight comes from a series of letters Homolka wrote him over the years.

In the letters, Homolka writes that she's treated like a monster by the media and the public.

She also writes that the idea she's terrified for her life is false. She says that impression was created by lawyers and the media and that it's gotten out of hand.

But Homolka says she had a change of heart about her personal safety at the Joliette hearing in early June, when she saw firsthand the intense media coverage that would follow her every move.

Homolka's father, Karel, has said his daughter plans to settle somewhere in the Montreal area.

Homolka reportedly hopes that by living in Quebec, where her case received less intense coverage and where experts say attitudes towards convicted criminals are softer, she might be able to disappear from the public view and avoid harassment.

With a report from CTV's national affairs correspondent Lisa LaFlamme