Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has questioned whether it was in the public interest to publish “humiliating” and “salacious” emails attributed to Labor senator Nova Peris.

Senator Peris on Thursday dismissed allegations she may have misused taxpayer funds to carry on an affair with fellow Olympian Ato Boldon after the content of the emails was reported by the Northern Territory News.

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She told parliament their publication was part of a “long-running and very difficult child access and financial estate dispute” and denied any financial wrong doing in relation to Boldon.

“It was a pretty distasteful collection of correspondence,” Mr Turnbull told ABC television on Friday.

“I just felt there was perhaps more of the personal in that correspondence that was published than was needed to pursue the public interest question.”

Mr Turnbull said he erred on the side of press freedom but in this case there may have been room for discretion.

“It sounds like the NT News has got themselves in the middle of a private legal dispute,” Mr Turnbull said.

Senator Peris told parliament she was contacted in October 2012 by an aggrieved party who told her he had in his possession a folder of information relating to Boldon’s 2010 visit to Australia.

In March this year, the party’s representative sent her an email and said “unless his wishes were granted she would take such action”. Further contact was made earlier this month.

Senator Peris said the aggrieved party had turned to the media after legal options were exhausted.

Boldon visited Australia as part of an Athletics Australia program, when Senator Peris says she was separated from her late husband.

The NT News is standing by the questions raised in its original story.

“There are questions still to be answered,” News Corp Australia editorial director Campbell Reid told Sky News on Thursday.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott declined to back Mr Turnbull’s comments, saying he was reluctant to pontificate on media standards.

“I really don’t want to get into this. It’s a personal business,” Mr Abbott told reporters in Melbourne.