UK’s top prosecutor defends journalists who break law in public interest

Britain’s most senior prosecutor, Keir Starmer, is sympathetic to journalists who may break the law when trying to report on national security. “We’ve got to recognise that in the course of journalism, journalists will rub up against the criminal law … We would assess where there was evidence of a criminal offence, whether the public interest in what the journalist was trying to achieve outweighed the overall criminality.” New legal guidelines have been drafted to protect reporters, he says.