The Press: Secrecy: The British Way

Publication of the Pentagon papers has provoked debate on just how—and where—to draw the line between a government’s right to secrecy and the duty of the press to inform. In Britain, for nearly 60 years, the problem has been partly solved in fuzzy fashion by the government’s D-Notice, an advisory by gentlemen’s agreement that alerts editors to sensitive security subjects. The notices (D is for Defense) have no legal force, and the occasional violations are punishable at worst by deep frowns of disapproval.

Useful Signposts. Some British newsmen complain that the notices constitute “unofficial censorship.” But most editors agree that the warnings provide useful signposts when dealing with stories that might compromise defense security or conflict with the Official Secrets Act, which applies to individuals as well as the press.

Twelve D-Notices are currently outstanding, and they deal exclusively with secret defense information. The notices are agreed upon and issued by a 16-member committee composed of five representatives from the government and eleven from the press. Vice-Admiral Sir Norman Denning, an intelligence expert who has been executive secretary and operating head of the committee since 1967, says that there have been no serious violations during his tenure. “I’ve received the utmost cooperation from the press,” he reports. “Whenever they’ve applied to me, they’ve always played the game. I never try to kill an article.”

Lacking Trust. But Denning doubts that the D-Notice system would work well in the U.S. “From my view of the way the press works in the States,” he says, “I would say it lacks perhaps some of the inhibitions of our press here.” Most British editors agree. They also point out that the U.S. press is bigger, more diversified and geographically dispersed so that control from a central point, feasible for the London-centered British press, would not work. Moreover, the British system depends heavily on mutual trust between government and press—a virtue that is, to say the least, an American rarity.

“When you think the government is using D-Notices to cover up something,” says Editor William Rees-Mogg of the London Times, “then the system breaks down. If you get to the point the American press reached with President Johnson, and where, I suppose, it has reached with the present Administration, then D-Notices are not any good.” The U.S. Government and press, Rees-Mogg speculates, will have to look elsewhere for a solution to the problem.