Sun deputy editor: it would be wrong to bar tips to paper
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Version 0 of 1. It is not for a journalist to decide whether a public official should or should not ring the Sun with a story, the paper’s deputy editor has told a court. Geoff Webster, who is on trial in connection with allegations of payments to public officials for stories, said the paper lives off tips from “all sorts of people”. It would be wrong to bar any group of people to phone a paper, he said. “If people want to speak to the Sun they should be allowed to.” Asked by his barrister, Geoffrey Cox QC, if there would be any difference if they were a public official, he responded: “That’s for their conscience, it’s not so much for the journalist to decide that. It’s for them to decide that the information they are about to impart is confidential or will get them into trouble.” “We are a newspaper and we live for tips, government handouts, a whole range of information,” he said. Webster was also quizzed about a night log from a night news editor about a tip-off from a woman who worked in a prison where the singer George Michael was detained. The tipster had alerted the paper to fans smuggling in hash cakes and cocaine. He said he “may well” have seen the log, but did not recall it. Had he read it, he said he would have thought it was “somebody prepared to ring us and give us a tip with a little bit of information and there’s no suggestion of any money changing hands”. “It would and should have been referred up to the editor for a decision” if there was an suggestion of payment, Webster added. Earlier he said he would have “run a mile” if he had been asked to sanction a payment to a public official to break the law by giving the Sun a story. Webster also emphatically denied ever paying a police officer. “I’ve never been asked to approve a payment to a police officer at all.” Among the many internal emails to Sun bosses read out before the jury was one from Tom Newton Dunn, the paper’s former defence editor regarding a speech by Sir John Sawers, the first serving chief of MI6 to give a public speech. It began “Morning colonels”. Asked what this was about, Webster replied: “It’s just the way he talks.” The email continued: “I went to the MI6 chief’s speech this morning, historic as it’s the 1st time ‘C’ has spoken in public – it was v good, a passionate defence of all his officers and agents against the tidal wave of leftie and anti-war attacks on them from the Guardian, former Guantanamo detainees, etc would be great if we could give him a decent show tomorrow – as exactly what we believe. quite a bit of sexy secret spying stuff in there too.” Police lost their way as they were driving to arrest Webster and had to phone him for directions, the court also heard. Webster was arrested in 2012, and was subsequently charged. “Police telephoned to get directions to my home because they couldn’t find it,” he said when he was asked to recall the day three years ago. “I rather wish I hadn’t told them now, “he quipped. Webster has been charged with two counts of conspiring to commit misconduct in public office. The first count, which is linked to alleged payments to Ministry of Defence official Bettina Jordan-Barber, covers an eight-year period between 2004 and 2012. The second count refers to alleged payments to an unknown soldier in 2010. The trial continues. |