BRITISH DEBATE: HOW FREE IS ITS PRESS?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000503960002-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 3, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: August 5, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000503960002-0
5 August 1985
British debate: how free is its press?
BBC drops program on Ulster, sparks dispute on coverage of terrorism
By Alexander MacLeod
sped to The ctMistlan Science Monitor found the judiciary adopting conflicting standpoints.
Iin rion
The British Broadcasting Corporation's cancellation
of a television program about extremism in Northern Ire-
land has added to fears that the news media in Britain are
losing more and more of their independence.
The board of governors of the BBC decided to view
and then withhold the program "At the Edge of the
Union" after Home-Secretary Leon Brittan warned it
would give the men of violence in Ulster undue publicity.
BBC chairman Stuart young said Mr. Brittan's re-
marks had raised grave issues about coverage of
terrorism.
Much of the government's concern arose from the fact.
that the film was to have included lengthy comments by
the man thought to be chief of staff of the Provisional
Irish Republican Army, Martin McGuinness. But BBC
executives pointed out that Mr. McGuinness is also an
elected member of the Ulster assembly set up by the gov-
ernment of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
It was clear that the ban had to be seen in the context
o -mountin ressure by the Thatcher government on the
piss and broadcasting to tak e another look at eir peg"-
cies on re of secure
o~rtm~~ ty-sensrtave matters.
Outside Britain it is not s a preciiated that jour-
nalists here en o copse era ess om an many
of their counterparts abroad - no y in the m
Upwi
Stamc where the First Am ndment to the oad - n
Ltabm e offers support for the independence of the press.
Among the limitations on the British media, the most
irwortant is the Official rets Act w rmhts the
anthorities to prosecute when they believe national secu-
rity has been damaged by the disclosure oormation.
In two Important recent cases the Thatcher govern-
ment has prosecuted civil servants who passed informa-
tion, either directly or indirectly, to newspapers.
Echoes of these cases were stirred when the governors
of the BBC responded to Brittan's warnings-about the
Ulster film by taking the unprecedented steps of viewing
it before airing and overruling top executives.
As the corporation's chairman argued that the integ-
rity of the BBC had not been undermined, television and
radio journalists called a one-day protest strike for
Wednesday. Journalists in commercial television have
decided to join the strike.
They saw the BBC's cancellation of "At the Edge of
the Union" as a new case of the government applying un-
reasonable curbs to journalistic freedom.
Inside the BBC, executives noted that the Thatcher
Government's attitude to the program had been colored
by the Trans World Airlines hostage crisis at Beirut air-
port. Mrs. Thatcher believes the media should stop giv-
ing terrorists the "oxygen of publicity" upon which they
depend. She and Mr. Brittan saw the proposed Ulster
Program as providing that "oxygen."
Controversy over the rights of the British media has
Lord Scarman, a staunch defender of civil rights, has ar-
gued that British media activity should be safeguarded
by a code of conduct under the law. He says the Euro-
pean Convention of Human Rights, which Britain sup-
ports, should be codified into English law.
But in a high court case concerning the parental rights
of a surrogate mother, a judge earlier this year ordered
the press to refrain from publishing details about the fa-
ther of the baby or his wife. Journalists critical of the
judge's ruling claimed it reflected a growing tendency by
the courts to set unacceptable limits to reporting.
The Observer newspaper is bringing a test case in the
high court against magistrates who refuse to allow their
names to be mentioned in reports of the cases they try.
Mounting concern over governmental pressure on the
media has led to the formation of the Association of Brit-
ish Editors.
As the argument about the BBC's banned Ulster film
continued, unnamed members of the corporation's gov-
erning board claimed the program was unbalanced and
the correct administrative methods concerning control
over its contents had not been followed.
In many parts of the BBC, the impact of the gover-
nors' decision was profound. Employees of the corpora-
tion's External Services, who pride themselves on being
independent of government pressure, pointed out that
immediately after the governors' ban became known, un-
friendly governments claimed the BBC was obviously a
tool of the British government. Among those making
such remarks were the authorities in Libya and Iran.
But inside the Thatcher administration there were no
regrets about the ban. Brittan said the corporation had
not been pressured. The chairman of the Conservative
Party, Selwyn Gummer, said it was a good decision.
Journalism and broadcasting do not operate in a
vacuum. They have special responsibility to those who
would suffer at the hands of people who recognize no ob-
ligation toward fellow human beings, Mr. Gummer said.
The leader of the Liberal Party, David Steel, accused
the government of adopting a "mummy knows best" ap-
proach to media freedom.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000503960002-0