Guardian 29/9/2001: "Straw takes swipe at liberals"

[Caspar Bowden]

> Sent: 29 September 2001 04:46
> Subject: Guardian 29/9/2001: "Straw takes swipe at liberals"
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,3605,560194
...
> The former home secretary Jack Straw launched a bitter attack ...
> ....would have allowed surveillance of 
> encrypted email had been dropped because of opposition. He 
> also attacked the Today programme itself as the "mouthpiece" 
> for the opponents of change. 


Guardian 1/10/2001: LETTERS

http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,3604,560949,00.html 
RIP debate 

Monday October 1, 2001
The Guardian 

It is unfair for Jack Straw to describe BBC Radio 4's Today programme as
the "mouthpiece" of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act's
opponents (Straw takes swipe at liberals, September 29). Today booked me
for their programme at 8.30am on March 22 2000, the day of our
Scrambling for Safety public conference about the bill. Charles Clarke,
described by your newspaper as Mr Straw's "henchman", had agreed to a
head-to-head debate. 

The evening before, we emailed a courtesy copy of our embargoed legal
opinion and press release to Mr Clarke's office and an hour later Today
phoned to explain that Mr Clarke was suddenly unavailable for the
programme. Apparently there had been an unfortunate misunderstanding
about the agreed time of the slot - a difference of 10 minutes. They
also explained that with a fast-changing news agenda, although they
understood the importance of airing the item that day, regrettably on
this occasion they would have to drop it altogether. 

The BBC did not mention the name of the bill on television until six
months after it was announced in the Queen's Speech. We have sent the
past and present directors of news and current affairs a substantial
dossier on a strange neglect in covering the controversy RIP caused
throughout the national press, as well as many instances of significant
factual misrepresentation. After more than a year we have not received a
substantive reply. 

Caspar Bowden
Director, Foundation for Information Policy Research cb@fipr.org