Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!mcvax!ukc!stl!stc!datlog!dlhpedg!cl
From: cl@datlog.co.uk (Charles Lambert)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: "Spycatcher" in the UK (was: Soviet Access to Usenet)
Message-ID: <953@dlhpedg.co.uk>
Date: 14 Dec 88 14:17:14 GMT
References: <8081@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <2672@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> <348@kps.UUCP> <2304@ficc.uu.net> <379@eda.com> <1283@stracs.cs.strath.ac.uk> <424@avsd.UUCP>
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Reply-To: cl@datlog.co.uk (Charles Lambert)
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[NOTE: I have redirected followups to misc.misc,  because I think it's broad
enough to stay out of talk.politics,  which I never read anyway.]

In article <424@avsd.UUCP> childers@avsd.UUCP (Richard Childers) writes:
>In article <1283@stracs.cs.strath.ac.uk> jim@cs.strath.ac.uk writes:
>>
>>UK under the Official Secrets Act.
>
>I understand that was just upgraded to "The Official Secrets Bill", and it
>is now an Even More Serious Offence to share Official Secrets with anyone,
>ever, throughout your life.

Hey ho.  It's interesting to see your own system viewed through the glass
of another culture's media.  Difficult to know whether it's more or less
distorting than your own media.  I'm not flaming you, Richard;  I guess you
got this from the same kind of 30-second journalists that we all have to
suffer.

(To forestall those who see red and hit 'F' on the first page, this is not
about to be a defense of the "Freedom of Information" Bill;  please read me
through.)

To begin with,  and Act (of parliament) is the statutory instrument:  a
Bill is just an attempt to place a new Act on the statute.  So the
"Freedom of Information" Bill (which you are referring to) is not in itself
a more powerful statute,  it is an attempt to replace the Official Secrets
Act.  Having said that,  if the Bill becomes law it will IMHO be a much
more oppressive attack on personal conscience.  It is a much narrower but
more powerful piece of legislation.  It defines categories of protected
information and makes it an absolute offence to disclose such information
under any circumstances.  The existing Official Secrets Act (also a piece
of Big Brotherism) made the blanket claim that *all* government information
(including the amount of tea consumed by civil servants) is secret and
that disclosure *might* lead to prosecution;  but it did leave room for
a defence based on the public interest.  No such defence will be allowed under
the proposed law.

The categories defined by the Bill are, at first sight, eminently sensible:
military tactics and strategy;  information likely to aid a criminal;
I forget the others.  But look more closely.  If the Chief Constable of
a police force states publicly that a particular brand of burglar alarm
is hopelessly defective,  he will be open to prosecution for disclosing
information likely to aid criminals.  Under another category,  it will be
a criminal offence for a journalist to reveal that someone's phone was
tapped by police, even if the tap was illegally placed.

>I also understand that the author of _Spycatcher_ is still staying out of
>Great Britain, as he is a wanted man by the government.

I understand that Peter Wright is living in Tazmania because he's very
comfortable there, thankyou.

> I've heard
>the BBC discussing things like MI5 interfering in Sir Harold Gilliam's (??)
							      ^^^^^^^
							      Wilson

>communications and such, damaging his period as Prime Minister seriously -
>because he was a Communist.

He is a Socialist; different thing.  That's a distinction I found very
difficult to explain when I lived in the States. At any rate, he is not
a Communist; no, no, no; honestly; please don't nuke us.

>It was only a year ago that BBC, as a whole, went on strike when the
>government attempted to establish its "right" to control what the BBC said.

The BBC, as a whole, has never been on strike. Different unions or factions
have struck at various times for the usual reasons,  sometimes blacking out
the service.  I don't recall any industrial action following the government's
recent,  sordid attacks on its editorial independence.

> The Bill Of Rights is out the window

There never has been a Bill of Rights in Britain other Magna Carta,  which
was drawn to protect the interests of the Barons against the absolute power
of the Monarchy.  Certain rights are protected by legal principle, such as
"habeas corpus", which should protect you from indefinite detention without
trial;  but these are always vulnerable to Emergency Powers.  There is now
a campaign called "Charter 88" that is calling for a Bill of Rights.

Charlie