Orders of the Day — Privileges

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 10:39 pm on 20 May 1986.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mr Ian Gilmour Mr Ian Gilmour , Chesham and Amersham 10:39, 20 May 1986

I entirely agree about breach of trust, but I am not entirely clear about the relevance of that interruption. We are discussing whether or not there has been a breach of trust by an hon. Member. Whoever leaked this report did wrong. The Times and Mr. Evans did not leak and did not do wrong. They published, as it was their right and duty to do. [HON. MEMBERS: "No."] The idea that there should be censorship because of the sacred deliberations of the Select Committees is absurd.

The right hon. Member for Bethnal Green and Stepney and the other members of the Privileges Committee seemed to be surprised that The Times was not prepared to wait until the official report was published. They said that The Times should have acted in the public interest, and the right hon. Gentleman thought he knew exactly what the public interest was. All that he was saying was that The Times should behave like an advertising man and sit back and allow its columns to be used for advertising.

The correct definition of news was given by William Randolph Hearst—and he should know—as something that someone does not want published; everything else is advertising. The right hon. Gentleman suggests that newspapers should sit back and say, "We cannot publish this. We must wait until we get the full report." That is not how newspapers should behave. It is not the way in which they behave in any other sphere of government. Why should they behave in that way with the deliberations of Select Committees?