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ABSTRACT This article considers the issues raised by the Richard Tomlinson affair. The authors discuss the following implications: First, the effective regulation and control of the Intelligence Services, concentrating upon the terms of Official Secrets legislation. Second, adequate legal safeguards for the internet. The authors discuss, inter alia, the problems of jurisdictional control, international regulation and technical possibilities for control. Finally, the authors assess the impact of the United Kingdom Government's proposals for a Freedom of Information Act and their impact upon the internet and the Intelligence Services. The authors contend that the Official Secrets Act 1989 is still in need of reform, regulation of the internet requires a paradigm shift in attitude, from all concerned and that the proposed Freedom of Information Bill requires overhauling.
Introduction
The controversy surrounding the case of Richard Tomlinson, the ex-M16 agent has started to subside, however, the ramifications of his actions may be felt far into the future. The facts of the case are now (in)famous, but they do merit some brief recapitulation.
Richard Tomlinson is a 35-year-old ex-M16 agent. In 1995, he was dismissed by M16, the Security Intelligence Service of the British government. He was not given any reasons for his dismissal and attempted to take his former employers to an industrial tribunal.1 However, M16 successfully argued that to subject itself to public scrutiny in this instance would threaten national security and its fundamental interests.3 Extremely dissatisfied, Richard Tomlinson, together with David Shayler, an ex-M15(3) operative, attempted to expose the alleged inefficiency and mismanagement of M15 and M16. Richard Tomlinson was arrested and subsequently imprisoned for 19 months in 1997.(4) On his release from prison, Tomlinson gave evidence to Judge Hearve Stephen, the judge investigating the Paris crash that killed Diana, the Princess of Wales. This evidence tended to implicate M16 in the crash.5 By a bizarre twist of fate, M16's Tomlinson was due to fly on doomed Swissair flight 111 that crashed over the Atlantic in September 1998. The CIA,6 at the behest of M16 had arrested on the World Wide Web. It is alleged that Tomlinson posted this list. Regardless of the trustworthiness of Tomlinson's claims not to have advertised the names on the Web, the case raises a number of issues of...