Via Guardian:
An Old Bailey judge has imposed unprecedented gagging orders preventing the British media from reporting information which is published today in newspapers and websites around the world.
The orders were imposed by Mr Justice Aikens during discussions in the court which Lewis Carroll would have delighted in hearing. At times, we were truly living in Wonderland. The discussions took place after David Keogh, a Whitehall communications officer, and Leo O'Connor, researcher to a former Labour MP, were found guilty of breaching the Official Secrets Act and jailed.
That's not strictly true. The judge said we can repeat those allegations but only if they appear on a different page of a newspaper than any reference to the trial or the document which was at the centre of it. We can also report, since it was said in open court, that the Guardian's counsel, Anthony Hudson, argued that it would be inappropriate to restrain publication of the allegation already in the public domain claiming that President Bush suggested that the Arabic TV station al-Jazeera should be bombed. Read more...
The article goes on to point out that this Judge's decision to use a contempt of court act to censor this story is unprecedented and that The Guardian, Time, BBC, and Index on Censorship will appeal the decision next week. Let's hope they succeed...
