§ Lord Jenkins of Putneyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Why they sought to obtain an injunction to ban the Observer newspaper from reporting alleged misconduct by MI5.
§ The Lord Chancellor (Lord Hailsham of Saint Marylebone)I assume that this Question arises out of the article published by theObserver on 27th July. The facts are as follows.
On Friday 25th July, the Editor of the Observer announced on television that he intended to publish on Sunday 27th July information obtained from an ex-MI5 officer. Accordingly the Attorney-General sought an interlocutory injunction on 26th July to restrain the Observer from publishing confidential information which would endanger national security.
Contrary to the implication in the Observer's article, the Attorney-General did not at that stage have any details of what the Observer intended to publish. It was not until Counsel for the Observer, during the course of the hearing before Mr. Justice Nolan, stated that the Observer intended to publish only a fair and accurate report of what took place in Parliament on 24th July as reported in the Official Report that this was made known to those representing the Attorney-General. Treasury Counsel appearing for the Attorney-General was then instructed to withdraw the application, which he did immediately.