1988: Government loses Spycatcher battle

The injunctions preventing newspapers from publishing material from ‘Spycatcher’ were discharged on 13 October 1988.

The memoirs of former MI5 officer, Peter Wright, had been banned in England since his first attempts to release the book.

The Law Lords of the House of Lords reasoned that any damage to national security had already been done by the book’s publication abroad, which the British Government failed to prevent.

BBC Archive: Originally broadcast on 13 October 1988.