UK Foreign Minister Says Media Have All Rights To Publish Leaked Secret Information

(@ChaudhryMAli88)

UK Foreign Minister Says Media Have All Rights to Publish Leaked Secret Information

UK Foreign Minister and Tory leadership contender Jeremy Hunt said on Saturday that journalists were absolutely eligible to publish leaks of secret information

LONDON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th July, 2019) UK Foreign Minister and Tory leadership contender Jeremy Hunt said on Saturday that journalists were absolutely eligible to publish leaks of secret information.

His statement came a day after the UK Metropolitan Police's Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said on Friday, while announcing a probe into a recent leak of memos penned by UK ambassador in Washington Kim Darroch, that anyone who would leak secret data knowing that it had already caused harm or was capable to do so in the future, may be seen as a felon.

"These leaks damaged UK/US relations & cost a loyal ambassador his job so the person responsible MUST be held fully to account. But I defend to the hilt the right of the press to publish those leaks if they receive them & judge them to be in the public interest: that is their job," Hunt tweeted.

On July 6, the Daily Mail newspaper published excerpts from confidential cables that Darroch had sent to London, in which the diplomat described the White House as "uniquely dysfunctional" and warned that US President Donald Trump could end up in "disgrace." Darroch also described Trump as inept, insecure and incompetent.

Darroch resigned on Wednesday, a day after Trump in a tweet called him "a very stupid guy." According to media reports, Darroch quit because Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary and the front-runner to succeed Theresa May as prime minister, refused to back him during a Conservative leadership tv debate.