Court Dispute Over Nigeria Report

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32281, 27 April 1970, Page 17

Court Dispute Over Nigeria Report

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyrightj LONDON, April 26. A clash between counsel over just what constituted an official secret occupied the attention of the Guildhall Bench when it heard charges against three defendants accused of disclosing classified information about the Nigerian civil war.

-i Defence counsel (Mr Basil 1 Wigoder, Q.C.) wait through ’ 'document after document to ’ show that the material his j i client was accused of disclosing was already public know- i 'ledge. ] Mr Wigoder was defending • a journalist, Jonathon Aitken, 1 saged 27, who is charged with!! ■ (wrongfully receiving and!] . passing on a report he knew to be officially secret. ■ Appearing with Aitken on a , ’ similar charge is Brian i Roberts, editor of the “Sun- i , day Telegraph,” which pubj lished a report about the , 1 Nigerian civil war on January 11; and Douglas Cairns, a former British Army colonel, who is accused of wrongfully passing on the report si All three have pleaded not s | guilty. t The document at issue was! f a report on the state of the; g. civil war drawn up by the. s defence adviser to the British i i-High Commission in Lagos; (Colonel Robert Scott). tl The Court was told that 1! Cairns, formerly senior Briti.ish representative in the I Nigerian war observer team,

had sent a copy of the report to an old colleague, who passed it, in confidence, to Aitken, who then submitted it for publication. Mr 'Wigoder produced a series of books and newspaper or magazine articles to Remonstrate to the Bench that the information contained in Colonel Scott’s report was already public knowledge. Prosecuting counsel (Mr John Matthews, Q.C.) argued that the document was an official one. “This is different from snippets which journalists round the world have gleaned from their own sources,” he said.

In response to a plea from the Bench to curtail his flow of detailed documentary evidence, Mr Wigoder insisted that he must continue unless the prosecution amended its contention that | Colonel Scott’s report’ con’tained secret information

“Well,” commented the chairman of the magistrates (Sir Bernard Waley-Cohen), “we shall just have to grin and bear it.” The case is expected to last five or six days.