Leo O’Connor and David Keogh were jailed in May for breaching the Official Secrets Act. David Keogh, a civil servant, had leaked a memo of a conversation between George Bush and Tony Blair, which he gave to Leo O’Connor, a parliamentary researcher. During the trial, discussion of the contents of the memo were held in camera. After Keogh and O’Connor were sentenced, the judge, Mr Justice Aikens, ruled under the Contempt of Court Act that the press could not discuss the trial and the alleged contents of the memo in the same article – despite the fact that the memo had already been widely discussed in the press. He also ruled that the media could not report a statement made by David Keogh in open court, which related to the contents of the memo.
Index, along with the UK’s leading broadcasters, newspapers and media organisations, appealed against the gagging orders.
The Court of Appeal has upheld the ruling – albeit under a different section of the law – which bans the press from reporting the statement made by David Keogh in open court. It also ruled that the press cannot suggest that allegations about the contents of the memo, which appeared in the Daily Mirror in 2005, represented the evidence given in camera. Mr Justice Aikens has said that the reports are inaccurate. So although the Kafkaesque restrictions have been modified, censorship on how the press reports the case still remains in place. No journalist can write freely about this case without risking contempt of court.
The limited success of the appeal means that secrecy is maintained, protecting the UK government and the US administration from immense potential embarrassment. The prosecution even conceded during the trial that the leak did not constitute ‘actual damage’.
What is exposed here is the farce of conducting an official secrets case: the contents of the memo remain in the public interest, but it remains in the government’s interest to keep them hidden.
