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24 '87 18:32 HERBERT SMITH "AK"
Date:
Time:
24.8.87
10
-
11 am
C.11
Reporter:
CNB/9
judiciary is or will become simply a tool of Government rather than an independent and impartial body treating all litigants
alike.
These sentiments were echoed by Lord
Templeman in his decision in the recent and, if I may say so,
In his decision controversial decision of the House of Lords.
he said at page 20 at the end of the paragraph at the top of the page: [Reads]
"I reject the allegation that the press are being
gagged or censored or submitted to Soviet discipline. The Millett inunctions were not imposed by the Government, the injunctions were imposed and are being continued by independent and impartial judges because they consider that despite the importance of the right of freedom of expression it is necessary in the national interest to prevent the Security Service being harmed now and in the future. The imposition of restraints on the press in the exercise of a
judicial discretion in conformity with the Convention [that is the European Convention to which reference has already been made] is an expression and not a negation of democracy in action."
Mr Lester argued that the approach of Mr Justice Millett was not approved by the House of Lords. the decision of the Lords, Lord Oliver said in his judgment it appears in the final paragraph on page 43: [Reads]
In
and
"We do not have a First Amendment but, as Blackstone observed, the liberty of press is essential to the
The price that we pay is nature of a free state. that that liberty may be and sometimes is harnessed to the carriage of liars or charlatans, but that. cannot be avoided if the liberty is to be preserved. No one contends that the liberty is absolute and there are occasions when it must yield to national emergency, to considerations of national security, and, on occasion, to private law rights of confidentiality where they are not overborne by some countervailing public interest. do not for a moment dispute that there are occasions when the strength of the public interest in the preservation of confidentiality outweighs even the importance of the free exercise of the essential privileges which lie at the roots of our society. if those privileges are to be overborne, then they must be overborne to some purpose.
But
I
In his decision Lord Templeman rather more
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