Doors open and welcome drinks from 6.45pm.
Panel discussion and Q and A, 7.30pm to 9pm.
Reception to follow, until 10.30pm.
Prince Phillip House, 3 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5DG.
In October 2024, Sir Keir Starmer declared in the Sun newspaper that “journalism is the lifeblood of democracy and journalists are guardians of “democratic values”. Condemning the use of “SLAPPS”, or Strategic Litigation Against Public Participations”, by the rich and powerful to intimidate journalists from their pursuit of the public interest, he went on to pledge that his government would “always champion Press freedoms”.
But to seasoned journalists with longer memories, these words rang hollow as they recalled the PM’s role in pursuing the prosecution of dozens of British journalists as part of Operation Elveden, while he was Director of Public Prosecutions.
Operation Elveden was a knee-jerk response to the phone-hacking scandal which had led to the closure of the News of the World in 2011 and was prompted by news organisations handing over evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service of payments made to sources by their own journalists. The Metropolitan Police staged a wave of dawn raids on journalists’ homes, made mass arrests and charged 29 journalists with conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office. After five years of investigation and multiple trials, the longest and costliest investigation in the history of Scotland Yard, every single journalist walked free.
The Free Speech Union is pleased to publish an essay which examines the significance of this unprecedented attack on the freedom of the press and questions whether the PM can really be trusted to defend the Fourth Estate. It is authored by veteran political journalist and stalwart defender of press freedom, retired Sun political editor Trevor Kavanagh.
We will mark its publication with a special event to discuss current threats to press freedom, featuring Trevor, journalist Anthony France, who was one of those prosecuted, and Sir Geoffrey Cox KC, former Attorney-General, who successfully defended Sun deputy editor Geoff Webster during the Elveden trials. In the chair will be FSU General Secretary Toby Young.
SPEAKERS
Trevor Kavanagh was the award-winning political editor of The Sun for a quarter of a century. He was present at all key moments of the marathon five-year Elveden fiasco. He witnessed the persecution of innocent journalists on trumped up charges of “conspiracy” – a medieval 13th century statute which the CPS admitted was hard to explain and difficult for juries to understand. He was in court as the trials collapsed, one after another, under the scrutiny of the defence counsel and increasingly sceptical Old Bailey judges. And he witnessed the final humiliation of the CPS when its counsel was asked in the Appeal Court by Lord Chief Justice Thomas: “Have you at any stage considered the freedom of the press?”
Anthony France is Crime Editor at the London Standard and a respected UK and international journalist with 30 years’ experience. He was one of 29 journalists arrested and prosecuted as part of Operation Elveden and one of only three to be convicted. Anthony was eventually acquitted – but not until 18 months later and long after he had completed 400 hours of community service with Oxfam. Along with the other suspects he had spent almost three years on police bail, a form of pre-trial punishment and harassment. None of the acquitted journalists received an apology from the CPS or the police or any form of compensation for their ordeal.
Sir Geoffrey Cox, KC, has been the Conservative member of parliament for Torridge and Tavistock since 2005. He was appointed Attorney General of England and Wales and Advocate General of Northern Ireland by Theresa May in 2018 and was knighted in 2021 for his services. He is among the Bar’s most eloquent and formidable performers and became famous during Parliament’s long and heated battle over Brexit for his impassioned defence of British sovereignty.
Chair: Toby Young (Lord Young of Acton).
Toby Young is a British journalist and campaigner. He is the founder and general secretary of the Free Speech Union, an associate editor of The Spectator and the editor-in-chief of the Daily Sceptic. He was made a life peer in 2024.
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