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Article: Thank heavens for the whistleblowers ; (1) The acquittal of a civil servant for breaching the Official Secrets Act highlights the need to defend those who leak vital information in the public interest(2) 'Without these brave people thousands of stories in the public interest could never have been told. We need to cherish and protect them'
- Article from:
- The Evening Standard (London, England)
- Article date:
- January 10, 2008
- Author:
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Copyright informationCopyright 2008 Evening Standard - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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YESTERDAY'S acquittal of a Foreign Office civil servant, Derek
Pasquill, under the Official Secrets Act, was a deeply welcome
exception to a disturbing and sinister trend. Even the Government
could not sustain the argument that Pasquill's leaks to a journalist
about its then policy of embracing Islamist radicals harmed national
security. As Foreign Office officials themselves admitted, in memos
that torpedoed the prosecution, he probably did national security a
service.
The policy to favour the Islamist-influenced Muslim Council of
Britain, and the secret contacts between the Foreign Office and the
Islamist Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, was changed as a direct result
of Pasquill's leaks. ...