§ Q10. Mr. Bellengerasked the Prime Minister what rules he has laid down and what directions he has given to Ministers of the Crown regarding acceptance by them of offers to contribute paid articles in public periodicals or appearances in television programmes.
§ The Prime MinisterThere has been no change in the long established policy that Ministers should not practise journalism. But this does not extend to authorship or to writings of a literary, historical, scientific, philosophical or romantic character. Nor is a Minister debarred from writing articles or letters to newspapers in order to supplement other methods of informing the public of the work of his Department. He should not, of course, accept payment for such articles. Ministers have discretion to accept payment for appearances in television programmes if it is clear that they are speaking in a private capacity.