BBC gagged over political funding scam
Reuters, London
The British Broadcasting Corporation has been stopped from broadcasting a story about a political funding scandal that has cast a shadow over Prime Minister Tony Blair's final months, police said yesterday.The injunction against the BBC on Friday followed a police request over concerns disclosure of "certain information at this stage would impede their enquiries". Blair, who is set to step down this year after a decade in power, has been questioned twice as a witness by detectives investigating whether political parties awarded state honours in return for loans. Top government lawyer Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith obtained the injunction following the police request. "The Attorney General acted in this regard completely independent of government and (in) his independent public interest capacity," the Metropolitan Police said in a joint statement with Goldsmith's Office. The BBC had argued its reporting of the story was a matter of public interest.
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