Bengali-origin Neil Basu, an assistant commissioner at Scotland Yard and the most senior non-white police officer in the country, was being torn to shreds by newspaper editors on Saturday for advocating they should not publish leaked government documents.
Basu’s warning stems from the leaked messages from the British ambassador in Washington, Kim Darroch, which found their way into the Mail on Sunday.
The leak, which provoked President Donald Trump to say “we would not deal with him” and led to the ambassador’s resignation, is now the subject of a criminal investigation by the police to try and identify the leaker.
But Basu has come under fire for advising the media to return any leaked documents which have traditionally been bread and butter for newspapers. Basu, who is the head of anti-terrorism at Scotland Yard and number three in the hierarchy, said in his statement: “The publication of leaked communications, knowing the damage they have caused or are likely to cause may also be a criminal matter.
“I would advise all owners, editors and publishers of social and mainstream media not to publish leaked government documents that may already be in their possession, or which may be offered to them, and to turn them over to the police or give them back to their rightful owner, Her Majesty’s Government.”
The former chancellor, George Osborne, who now edits the London Evening Standard, was withering in denouncing Basu: “If I were the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, and I wanted to maintain my credibility and the credibility of my force, I would quickly distance myself from this very stupid and ill-advised statement from a junior officer who doesn’t appear to understand much about press freedom.”Basu is likely to get his knuckles wrapped by his boss, Cressida Dick, the first woman to hold the post of Metropolitan Police commissioner.
Ian Murray, executive director of the Society of Editors, said: “I cannot think of a worse example of a heavy-handed approach by the police to attempt to curtail the role of the media as a defence against the powerful and those in authority.”
“The implied threat is that the media would be acting against the law in publishing leaked documents, even if they were in the public interest.
“This is simply not acceptable in a free society and will act as a huge deterrent to whistle-blowers. Frankly it is the kind of approach we would expect from totalitarian regimes where the media are expected to be little more than a tame arm of the government. This is not nor should not be the case here in the UK.”
Tory leadership contenders Boris Johnson, who failed to give Darroch his full backing, and Jeremy Hunt both strongly defended the right of the press to publish leaked government documents.
Boris said: “In my view there is no threat to national security implied by the release of this material. It is embarrassing but it is not a threat to national security. It is the duty of media organisations to bring new and interesting facts into the public domain. That is what they are there for.
“A prosecution on this basis would amount to an infringement on press freedom and have a chilling effect on public debate.”
Hunt agreed: “These leaks damaged UK/US relations and cost a loyal ambassador his job so the person responsible MUST be held fully to account. But I defend to the hilt the right of the press to publish those leaks if they receive them and judge them to be in the public interest: that is their job.”
