The Rt. Hon. Tony Blair
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London WC 1
UK
Vienna, 20 March 2000
Your Excellency,
The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors and media executives, is most concerned with the threats posed to The Observer and The Guardian newspapers as a result of your government’s actions in the matter of David Shayler, the former MI5 officer now residing in France.
It is IPI’s understanding – as a result of a March 17 court hearing – that The Observer is now legally required to hand over all e-mail messages between its reporter, Martin Bright, and Mr. Shayler; and that Mr. Bright, proceeded against separately, is also required to hand over his relevant notebooks. The Guardian is required to supply your authorities with the actual copy of a letter for publication from Mr. Shayler (which has already been published).
In none of these instances can there be any question of the papers’ withholding information which is not already in your possession or the possession of your Home Secretary and security services. On the contrary, this affair seems merely to denote a gathering of formal evidence for some as yet notional court case against Mr. Shayler (should that ever happen).
The impact for The Observer and The Guardian, however, is chilling. It is a given duty in every press code in every democratic country that journalists have an obligation to protect their sources – not for their own sake, but to ensure the free flow of information on which journalism depends. Those duties are further reflected in international agreements, including the European Convention of Human Rights. Indeed, it is our firm belief that The Observer and The Guardian would win an appeal in the European Court of Human Rights if they decided to pursue that avenue.
It is the worst possible signal for the British government to seek to over-ride these obligations in a case where no new information of substance is even concerned. It is bound, in its implications, to cause fear amongst the vital sources of journalism in future. And it seems, in all the circumstances, to amount to a harassment of the papers and the reporters concerned for no other reason but the general intimidation of free investigation into crucial areas of policy.
Beyond that, IPI is deeply concerned about the example such proceedings set internationally in a world where undemocratic governments constantly resort to gagging orders and the like, seeking, spuriously, to cite some Western precedent. We have no doubt that the British government’s action here will be used time and again to jail or threaten journalists in other countries and we are genuinely alarmed at this prospect.
We therefore urge Your Excellency, as an avowed exponent of press freedom – and speaker at IPI occasions in the past – to realise the grave damage that these proceedings are doing and to do everything in your power to bring this distressing episode to an end.
We thank you for your attention.
Yours sincerely,
Johann P. Fritz
Director
