Sir Keir Starmer abused his role when he was Director of Public Prosecutions by launching a “blatant attempt to intimidate and silence the free press”, a veteran journalist has claimed. The Telegraph has the story:
The Prime Minister was head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in 2011 when Operation Elveden began to investigate alleged payments by reporters to public officials.
Several journalists from the Sun were charged as part of the £33 million investigation, but all were eventually cleared of wrongdoing.
But now Trevor Kavanagh, the Sun’s former political editor, has launched a scathing attack on Sir Keir’s role in the affair, accusing him of conspiring with the Labour Party to single out the newspaper in an “act of political vengeance”.
He said, despite Sir Keir’s recent defence of journalism as the “lifeblood of democracy”, he “cannot and should not escape responsibility as the instigator of Operation Elveden, a blatant attempt to intimidate and silence the free press”.
In an essay written for the Free Speech Union and presented on Monday, Mr Kavanagh suggested the prosecutions amounted to a “purge of innocent journalists” after the Sun announced it was pulling the plug on its support for Gordon Brown’s Labour government in 2009.
Two years later, with Sir Keir running the CPS, Operation Elveden was launched, and dozens of journalists were placed under suspicion.
Many had their homes raided, spent years on bail and were eventually charged under the 14th-century common law, of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.
Mr Kavanagh told the audience: “In scenes reminiscent of Vladimir Putin’s police state, scores of newsmen and women were rounded up and forced to undergo show trials for printing true stories.”
Among those who were charged was John Kay, the Sun’s award-winning chief reporter. Mr Kavanagh said the information Mr Kay’s tipster had been paid for was “undeniably in the public interest” and included stories about how British troops were having to pay for their own equipment on the front line.
Eventually, all the journalists were cleared of wrongdoing, but many paid a heavy price, with some going through divorce, alcoholism, and even attempting suicide.
He said: “The right and duty of newspapers to speak truth to power was only saved by British justice, the jury system and the wisdom of the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Justice Thomas.
“Starmer’s trumped-up charges collapsed like dominoes after being identified by the Appeal Court as an abuse of the press freedom [he] now claims to hold so dear.”
Mr Kavanagh said the acquittals represented a “chilling indictment of both the police and the Crown Prosecution Service – and indeed Keir Starmer’s claim to have been an impartial state prosecutor”.
Worth reading in full.
Read Trevor’s FSU briefing here.
