Journalists should not always be prosecuted for paying public officials, says former CPS head

Lord Macdonald said payments can be 'appropriate' and in the public interest

Lord Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions, thinks not enough weight has been placed on the public interest (PA)

The former head of the Crown Prosecution Service has said it can be “appropriate” for journalists to pay officials for information and that Operation Elveden had overlooked the public interest.

Lord Macdonald’s comments came after charges were dropped for nine journalists, including former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, who were awaiting trial for making payments to police and public officials.

Four journalists from The Sun and Daily Mirror were also cleared on Friday of conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office.

Andy Coulson was once of the journalists to have charges dropped (Reuters)

Brandon Malinsky, a Sun night editor found not guilty, called on Operation Elveden to be abandoned after “two years of torture” that amounted to a “disgraceful waste of public money”.

He said the police should stop “persecuting innocent journalists” and concentrate on criminals.

“They should be out on the streets stopping real crimes instead of this disgraceful witch hunt,” Mr Malinsky added. “It's an ordeal that should never have happened.”

Lord Macdonald, who was the director of public prosecutions between 2003 and 2008 and is now a Liberal Democrat peer, said journalists should not be taken to court in cases where obtaining paid-for information was in the public interest.

From left, the ‘Sun’ reporters Neil Millard and Tom Wells, and Graham Brough, formerly of the ‘Daily Mirror’, leaving the Old Bailey after they were cleared of charges of paying officials for stories (PA)

Speaking to Radio 4’s Today programme, he added: “I think we have to give the highest regard to the importance of freedom of expression and the free exchange of ideas and I think it is simply obvious that there are circumstances in which it can be in the public interest for journalists to pay for information.

"Not for tittle tattle, or gossip or scandal. But we can all imagine cases where if the price of information coming into the public domain is the payment of a public official by a journalist then that's an appropriate thing for the journalist to do.

"It looks as though in the charging decisions that were made in the past in the Elveden cases, not enough weight was attached to the public interest in free expression and the freedom of the press, and that was an error I think the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders) has tried to correct by dumping these cases.”

Alison Saunders, Director of Public Prosecutions (PA)

The CPS is carrying out an urgent review of all the remaining cases brought following the £20 million Operation Elveden probe.

So far, 14 journalists have been cleared by juries and only two journalists have been found guilty.

The Court of Appeal quashed the conviction of the first - a News of the World reporter - and gave the second leave to appeal.

Under new CPS guidelines, public officials and journalists will be treated differently when assessing the seriousness of alleged misconduct in a public office, a criminal offence dating back to the 13th century.

Payments taken by police officers are considered a “particularly grave matter” under the guidelines because of their access to confidential witness and victim information.

Several Sun journalists have been cleared of paying public officials. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

But for journalists who deal with other types of officials such as prison guards, the affront to the public interest may be “finely balanced” against the lack of harm caused by the resulting stories.

In these circumstances, the guidelines say prosecution of journalists “may not always be in the public interest”.

Operation Elveden, which was launched by the Metropolitan Police in 2011, has led to charges against 28 public officials accused of receiving a total of £180,000 for the sale of stories. So far, 21 have been convicted.

Additional reporting by PA