IN BED WITH THE MILITARY (This letter arose from the publication in the IRISH TIMES of dispatches from Afghanistan by an Irishman, Lieutenant Patrick Bury -serving in the British Army. The British Army was well served by them – but was the paper’s readership?)
Has it occurred to other readers that public servants of the United Kingdom are bound by the Official Secrets Act, breach of which can result in several years imprisonment, and that UK newspapers can be served with D Notices to stop them publishing items that might embarrass the authorities. Have the banning of “Spycatcher” in the UK and the UK’s attempt to have it banned in Australia and Ireland been forgotten?
It seems to me that had a serving officer of the 1st Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, presented a truthful account of the Battalion’s actions on Bloody
Sunday to the London papers he would not have earned promotion, and that if he had sold a truthful account to the Dublin papers he would not have been
popular in the mess. As it happens, the Battalion Adjutant wrote a less than frank account of the action at the time, and ended up a General with a Knighthood, and now, retired from the forces, has gainful employment in “defence” related commerce.
I’m sure that your Military Correspondent in Afghanistan will have had his copy vetted by his military bosses, and that he made sure not to blot his copybook before submitting it to THE IRISH TIMES.
Readers should adopt the motto -“Caveat Lector.”
Donal Kennedy 23 October 2008.
Madam,
Rocky Road to the Aras.
Is Carmel Frawley (Feb 14) really a Begrudger? She wants the potholes in the Phoenix Park filled in before the visit of Queen Elizabeth.
That Gracious Lady’s servants made careers cratering Irish roads, and it is ingratitude, to say the least, not to offer her a Drop of the Crater
in return.
Donal Kennedy Feb 17 2012
dmkennedy
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