“Government loses bid to suppress Cabinet minister's political diaries”
The Attorney General sought to prevent Jonathan Cape Ltd from publishing the diaries of Richard Crossman, a former Labour Cabinet minister who died in 1974. The diaries contained detailed accounts of Cabinet discussions and government decision-making from 1964-1970, which the government argued breached Cabinet confidentiality.
Whether the court could restrain publication of political memoirs containing Cabinet discussions on grounds of breach of confidence and public interest.
The court refused to grant an injunction. While Cabinet discussions are subject to a duty of confidence, this duty is not absolute and diminishes over time. The public interest in disclosure outweighed any remaining confidentiality after the passage of time.
This case established important limits on government secrecy and recognized that political accountability requires eventual disclosure of government decision-making processes. It balanced executive privilege against democratic transparency and freedom of expression.
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OSCOLA Citation
Attorney General v Jonathan Cape Ltd [1976] QB 752
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