P.M. BRIEFING : ‘Spycatcher’ Excerpts Draw Fines
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LONDON — A judge fined three national newspapers $250,000 today for publishing excerpts of “Spycatcher,” a book by a former security agent that details British intelligence operations.
Justice Andrew Morritt fined the Sunday Times, the Independent and the defunct News $83,500 each in the High Court for violating a ban imposed by the government against the Guardian and the Observer for publishing excerpts from the book in June, 1986.
The Guardian and the Observer were vindicated in a ruling by the Law Lords, Britain’s highest court, Oct. 13, 1988, that said newspapers could publish extracts from the book by Peter Wright, a former agent for Britain’s domestic security service MI5.
But Morritt ruled that the ban applied to all newspapers.
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