I
features
Battalion/Page 2B
March 4, 1982
Press freedom challenged
in Britain’s high courts
United Press International
LONDON — Freedom of the
press has been attacked in many
strange ways, but few have been
so strange as the one involving a
pretty Londoner named Harriet
Harman.
“This is a black day for the
openness of our courts and for
press freedom,” Ms. Harman
said when the House of Lords,
Britain's highest appeal court,
found her guilty of contempt of
court.
“This is another case of the
state and its agencies seeking to
draw the rules so the truth can
be silenced,” Ken Ashton, chief
of the National Union of Jour
nalists, said. He said the courts
had “struck yet another blow at
the freedom of the press.”
Harriet Harman is a lawyer.
She represented a man suing the
Home Office, Britain’s interior
ministry. She forced this arm of
government to produce 2,800
documents which had been
guarded with stubborn secrecy
in a country with no freedom of
information law.
During the trial about 800 of
these documents were read in
open court. They thus became a
matter of public record. Even
now, months later, anyone can
read them by buying a transcript
of the trial.
Ms. Harman gave them to a
reporter.
For this she was charged with
contempt and found guilty.
She appealed all the way to
the House of Lords. By 3 to 2,
the law lords found her guilty
again, and ordered her to pay
the government’s prosecution
costs, 25,000 pounds ($46,250).
Grand Opening
Specials
FRIDAY & SATURDAY
MARCH 5 & 6
30%
Long & Short
Sleeve T-Shirts
‘-pshments, Drawings, Discounts
)
tfrum? inmtnnTiomi
4411 So. Texas 846-8156
10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“It is absurd for the Lords to
rule that documents read out in
public are secret,” she said.
Lord Diplock, who delivered
the majority verdict, said the
case had nothing to do with free
dom of speech, freedom of the
press, the openness of justice or
documents in the public do
main.
What happened, Lord Di
plock said, was that Ms. Harman
obtained the documents for a
specific purpose and went
beyond that purpose.
Furthermore, he said, there
were two kinds of court repor
ters, those working for law re
ports and those producing
accounts for the media. Showing
the documents to the first kind
was fine. Showing them to the
second kind was contempt of
court.
Civil libertarians said this was
“an absurd distinction.” Two
dissenting law lords agreed.
Ms. Harman says she is
appealing the case to the Euro
pean court of human rights.
She was prosecuted under a
new British law of contempt of
court, which took effect last fall.
It toughens still further some of
the world’s toughest libel and
contempt laws.
“This is a liberalizing bill, and
it is intended to be a liberalizing
bill,” said Lord Hailsham, the
Lord Chancellor, in introducing
it.
The new law applies con
tempt provisions from the mo
ment an arrest is made in a cri
minal case — merely printing
id person
the name of the arrested person
is considered contempt — or
from the moment trial is agreed
in a civil case. It extends con
tempt rules until all appeals are
finished.
It bars any attempt to obtain,
disclose or solicit information
about anything that goes on in a
jury room. In other words, it is
against the law to ask ajuror how
a decision was reached, or for a
juror to tell even his family ab
out his experience.
It is contempt to tape-record
court proceedings unless a
judge approves. Recently the
Observer newspaper made his
tory by gaining permission to
use a pocket tape recorder in
court.
Cameras cannot be used
"within the precincts of the
court,” which extend outside the
court building. A judge can
order that publication be post
poned of reports on any open
court proceedings which, in his
view, prejudice some other pro
ceedings.
SPRING ELECTIONS
Filing Dates:
Thursday, March 4 through
Friday, March 12
9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
216 MSC
John Norris of Bryan’s Steven F. Austin
Junior High School finds the steps of
Harrington Education Classroom Center
Taxpayers can get break
by deducting medical costs
Student Government
Class Offices
Graduate Student Council
OCA
RHA
Yell Leaders
United Press International
Taxpayers who itemize their
deductions should not overlook
medical and dental expenses in
curred during 1981, notes Com
merce Clearing House, a nation
al reporting authority on tax
and business law.
Individuals may deduct half
of the premiums paid for medic-
half of
trying
al insurance, up to $1
amounts paid for medicinesa^
drugs which exceed 1 perceniB^M 1 taI
adjusted gross income; aBy sane
other medical expenses, inclaB lcs s P ec
ing the remaining portion of™ Amor
Elections: March 30, 31
J
FI KAPPA ALPHA
would like to congratulate
our little sisters...
surance premiums, which
ceed 3 percent of the adjusij
gross income
TRAVE.l_TooL<b
Fraaae. 5Tcxs>
LlAUUWCi SAoe>
Soft
Tote,
CAK4 VAS lUCtfVxaE-
OUR.
A married couple who inci
red significant medical
might find it advantageous
file separately since the limil
tions are based on the adjust
gross income of the pets
claiming the deductions. Ac
payer is also entitled to dedi
those expenses for an individi
who was a spouse or a dep
dent at the time the expeii
were incurred.
Unite
JNCC
actices,
Jue, are s
1 ps and
[ :>ning a
Bin refill
Farnili
Beventiv
I te long i
B Nebra
Her ;
include:
—Dc
Bficeapj
I Telep
"orried,
and ask i
GINA GEIGER
EXPERiewCED STAFF
WILL. AWSVS/E.U. YOUR
QUESTIOMS AWO WEU? YOU TO
OHOO&H TWe. RIGHT BAG FOR
VOUR NIF-F-Q3 ■
Ask! FOR OUR FRELIE-
BAOCPACkOERS AHD FOREACaNl
The types of expenses tl
qualify are not always clear. (
viously, medical insurance p
miums are deductible if tlf
provide for reimbursement
hospitalization costs, preset
lion drugs and doctor and i
ntal visits.
1982 MISS TEXAS ASM
TRAVE.L.E-KS CUECJO-IST.
and
WHOLE LARTH
PROVISION COMPANY
However, also deductible 2
premiums for policies providij
contact lens replacement; pj
paid health protection policj
for post-age 65 medical 1
(paid for a period of at least
years); Medicare B premiui
Medicare A premiums, if tH
are paid voluntarily; and ot
insurance policies, if the medi
care portion is separately stal
and it is not unreasonable
105 Boyett 846-8794
No deduction is available!
reimbursed medical expens
Unreimbursed expenses p<
for essential medical care,
eluding transportation, are t
ductible.
RHONDA WILLIAMS
1ST RUNNER UP
MSC
TMVEL
^ A TRIP TO
^ CHINA
Summer of 1982^
Congratulations girls,
we're very proud of
you both!
*411 meals, lodging, ground franspo
talion in China
•VisiHnq Shanghai, Nanking, hang-
- i
t'fjg
zhou, Zuzhou, t Beijing
Sixteen days fotalfend of May) .
i' *fl,990 including round trip airfare^
from West Coast to China
Sign-up begins today in MSC 216,
*500 deposit
for more info p/ease call 845-1514 or stop by MSC 216