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Rebekah Brooks The Guardian Phone-Hacking Trial

Metropolitan police seeking court order for Guardian’s sources

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

September 16, 2011 | 2 min read

The Metropolitan police are seeking a court order under the Official Secrets Act to make the Guardian reveal its phone-hacking sources.

Scotland Yard officers say that the act, which has special powers usually aimed at espionage, could have been breached in July when reporters Amelia Hill and Nick Davies revealed the hacking of Milly Dowler's phone.

The court order application claims that Hill could have incited police working on the then Operation Weeting hacking inquiry into leaking information, both about Milly Dowler and about the identity of Coulson, Rebekah Brooks and other arrested newspaper executives.

The Guardian's editor, Alan Rusbridger, said on the newspaper’s website: “We shall resist this extraordinary demand to the utmost.”

Michelle Stanistreet, the NUJ general secretary, said: “This is a very serious threat to journalists and the NUJ will fight off this vicious attempt to use the Official Secrets Act.

“In 2007 a judge made it clear that journalists and their sources are protected under article 10 of the Human Rights Act and it applies to leaked material. The use of the Official Secrets Act is a disgraceful attempt to get round this existing judgment.”

Rebekah Brooks The Guardian Phone-Hacking Trial

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