World Press Organisations Protest to Britain Over Northern Ireland Arrests

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The World Association of Newspapers and World Editors Forum have sent a strongly worded protest to British Prime Minister Tony Blair against the arrest of two journalists in Northern Ireland, who the press organisations said were being punished for embarrassing the government.

“Police actions in this case constitute an attack on press freedom in the United Kingdom,” said the Paris-based WAN and WEF in a letter to the Prime Minister.

“To pursue journalists under the Official Secrets Act for revealing embarrassing information gained by clandestine operations of the security services is unjustified and clearly against the public interest,” they said.

On 30 April, armed police arrived at the home of Liam Clarke and Kathryn Johnston, co-authors of an unofficial biography of Sinn F?Ô?«in leader Martin McGuinness, and took away four computers and a large number of documents. They also raided the Belfast office of the Sunday Times, where Mr Clarke is Northern Ireland editor, declining Mr Clarke’s offer of a key and instead breaking down the door, again confiscating documents.

Mr Clarke and Ms Johnston were arrested under the Official Secrets Act on 1 May and were each interrogated four or five times in the presence of their lawyers before being released on police bail after almost 24 hours in custody. No charges have yet been brought.

The arrests follow the publication in The Times and Irish News of excerpts of transcripts of tape recordings of four telephone calls in 1999 and 2001 between senior political figures, including Martin McGuinness MP, Jonathan Powell (chief of staff to the Prime Minister), Mo Mowlam MP (Secretary of State for Northern Ireland at that time), and Sinn F?Ô?«in President Gerry Adams MP. The tape recordings were allegedly made by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) at the request of the secret intelligence service, MI5.

“While the content of the disclosures (the publication of phone-tapped conversations) may have been embarrassing to the government, it in no way posed a threat to national security,” said WAN and the WEF.

“The actions of the PSNI were clearly disproportionate and intimidatory,” said WAN and the WEF, which asked Mr Blair to ensure that an investigation into the conduct of police be carried out. “The raid by armed officers on the home of two journalists after dark is an excessive response to any offence that might have been committed.”

“Given the PSNI’s disproportionately heavy-handed behaviour, it is hard to escape the conclusion that the police were ‘punishing’ Mr Clarke and Ms Johnston for embarrassing the government, while at the same time sending a clear warning to other investigative journalists and would-be whistle-blowers,” said the letter.

The full text of the letter can be found here.

The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, defends and promotes press freedom world-wide. It represents 18,000 newspapers; its membership includes 71 national newspaper associations, individual newspaper executives in 100 countries, 13 news agencies and nine regional and world-wide press groups.

The WEF is the division of WAN that represents senior news executives.

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