Court eases ban on secret agent’s memoirs

Press, 4 January 1988, Page 6

Court eases ban on secret agent’s memoirs

NZPA-Reuter Londoni A High Court judge on Saturday eased a blanket ban preventing newspapers from publishing extracts from the privately printed memoirs of a former British secret agent. The ruling allows the "Observer” and the “Sunday Times” to publish some extracts from the 150-page book, “Inside Intelligence,” by a former agent, Anthony Cavendish, but they cannot use material about his work

with the secret services or refer to matters affecting national security. Mr Cavendish, aged 60, who left MI6 counterintelligence in 1953 and is now a merchant banker, had the memoirs published privately and sent 500 copies to friends as Christmas gifts. He said his only aim was to defend the late MI6 director-general, Maurice Oldfield, against allegations of homosexual involvement with male prostitutes.

The Government, which says former secret agents owe their country a duty of life-long silence about their work, obtained an injunction on Friday preventing the “Observer” from publishing extracts from the book. It sought an injunction against the “Sunday Times” at Saturday’s hearing, but lawyers for both newspapers successfully argued that the terms of the injunction were too severe and the Judge agreed to vary the terms.