Sarah Tisdall was a Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...

 (FCO) clerical officer who was jailed for leaking British government documents to a newspaper in 1983.

Cruise missiles

Sarah Tisdall anonymously sent The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

photocopied documents detailing when American cruise missile

Cruise missile

A cruise missile is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and is propelled, usually by a jet engine, towards a land-based or sea-based target. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead over long distances with high accuracy...

 nuclear weapons would be arriving in the United Kingdom. The documents set out the political tactics Michael Heseltine

Michael Heseltine

Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, CH, PC is a British businessman, Conservative politician and patron of the Tory Reform Group. He was a Member of Parliament from 1966 to 2001 and was a prominent figure in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major...

, then defence minister, would use to present the matter in the House of Commons

British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

.

No security threat

There did not appear to be any threat to national security in the revelation but the Government nonetheless brought a legal action against The Guardian, seeking an order requiring the newspaper to reveal its source. Although The Guardian successfully argued that it was protected by section 10 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981

Contempt of court

Contempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, declares a person or organization to have disobeyed or been disrespectful of the court's authority...

 from providing the information, the judgement by Justice Scott

Richard Scott, Baron Scott of Foscote

Richard Rashleigh Folliott Scott, Baron Scott of Foscote PC, QC , is a British judge, who formerly held the office of Lord of Appeal in Ordinary.-Early life:...

 was almost immediately overturned. The appeal by the Attorney General

Attorney General

In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...

 was on the grounds that – although the documents themselves were harmless – a civil servant capable of leaking them, might leak other documents which could pose a threat to national security.

Tell-tale copies

The Guardian complied with a court order to hand over the documents, which were identified as coming from an FCO photocopying machine. The machine led to Tisdall who, when confronted with the evidence, pleaded guilty to a charge under section 2 of the Official Secrets Act 1911

Official Secrets Act 1911

The Official Secrets Act 1911 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It replaces the Official Secrets Act 1889....

. She was sentenced to six months in jail but was released after four months.

House of Lords

The legality of the Order (compelling the Guardian to surrender the documents, and thus reveal their source) was upheld in a decision of the House of Lords

House of Lords

The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

 (Secretary of State for Defence v. Guardian Newspapers Ltd. [1985] AC 339) by a majority of three against two.

See also

• Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty
  Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty
  The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is a 1987 agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union. Signed in Washington, D.C. by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev on December 8, 1987, it was ratified by the United States Senate on May 27, 1988 and...
  
  
• Clive Ponting
  Clive Ponting
  Clive Ponting is a British writer, former academic and former senior civil servant. He is the author of a number of revisionist books on British and world history...
  
   was another civil servant who leaked defence information but was acquitted by the jury that accepted his public interest defence.
• Patrick Haseldine
  Patrick Haseldine
  Patrick John Haseldine is a former British diplomat who was dismissed in August 1989 by the then Foreign Secretary, John Major, for "various disciplinary offences constituting breaches of the Diplomatic Service Regulations"...
  
   was dismissed by the then foreign secretary, John Major
  John Major
  Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
  
  , in August 1989 following his public criticism of prime minister Margaret Thatcher
  Margaret Thatcher
  Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
  
  for being "soft on terrorism".

External links

• Troubled history of the Official Secrets Act