Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ukma!gatech!purdue!decwrl!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!mcvax!ukc!strath-cs!jim
From: jim@cs.strath.ac.uk (Jim Reid)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: "Spycatcher" in the UK (was: Soviet Access to Usenet)
Keywords: Espionage arpanet
Message-ID: <1283@stracs.cs.strath.ac.uk>
Date: 1 Dec 88 12:42:51 GMT
References: <8081@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <2672@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> <348@kps.UUCP> <2304@ficc.uu.net> <379@eda.com>
Reply-To: jim@cs.strath.ac.uk
Organization: Comp. Sci. Dept., Strathclyde Univ., Scotland.
Lines: 33

In article <379@eda.com> jim@eda.com (Jim Budler) writes:
>Mrs. Thatcher isn't very happy with Peter Wright. Publishing memoirs
>about dirty deads inside MI5 and MI6 is a no-no. The book's banned
>in Britain.

I have nothing but distaste for the present Thatcher regime and I
totally disapprove of most of its actions. However, your remarks about
the book being banned in the UK are wrong. The Government decided that
Wright's book was a threat to "national security" - in reality it was
politically embarrassing - and tried to prevent its publication in the
UK under the Official Secrets Act. They also tried (and failed) with the
same tactic in Commonwealth countries such as Australia.

While the case was going through the courts, there was an injunction in
the UK to prevent the distribution or sale of the book. [It was not an
offence or a contempt of court to own a copy of the book. Many people
brought copies home from places like USA and Eire where it was freely
on sale.] The Government's case was laughed out of court even after a
succession of appeals that only made the Government look more and more
ridiculous.

With no more court proceedings, the book can now be sold. It was (is?) a
best-selling book in the UK, although the UK publishers have been
grumbling about lost sales because of all the American, Irish etc copies
that were bought when the Spycatcher affair started over a year ago.

		Jim
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