Edward
Bartender
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- London, UK
@Edward,
Don't forget that a mainly compliant press and the threat of the dreaded D Notice helped keep things quiet on the Phil the Greek front !
The D Notice system (as was - now rebranded as the Defence and Security Media Advisory System, or DSMA Notices -http://www.dsma.uk/ ) wouldn't have come into private matters on the DoE; it has only ever been a wholly extra-legal channel, designed to encourage the news media to play nice on national security and defence matters. Specific D-notices can be issued (I suspect there may well have been one put out when Prince Harry went to Afghanistan; there was certainly also one put out early in the Iraq conflict in 2003 which asked the press not to publish information about a specific vulnerability on British armoured troop carriers until after it had been addressed and rectified), but whether a specific individual has played away would have nothing to do with it. The systme is also wholly advisory, with no legal force, so it's impossible to "threaten" someone with a D-notice (David Cameron was much criticised by the DSMA committee a few years ago when he seemed to try to do just that, indicating he didn't understasnd the system.) If they're resorting to law, it would be libel (or privacy, if the press had any proof) every time. Notably, in English law it is almost impossible to get a pre-trial injunction preventing the publication of a story on grounds that it is alleged to be a libel, but the royals are among the very few who have managed this.