Clarke defends law and order agenda

UK Daily Mail
Apr. 24, 2006

Home Secretary Charles Clarke is to take on his critics in the media.
He will accuse them of misrepresenting the Government's law and order agenda as an attack on civil liberties and human rights.

Mr Clarke will denounce what he terms "myths" about issues such as control orders, Asbos, police retention of DNA samples and the right to trial by jury.
And he will accuse some parts of the media of reporting the issues through a "distorted prism" which gives readers an inaccurate view of the balance to be maintained between individual liberties and personal or national security.

Mr Clarke's speech comes a day after Prime Minister Tony Blair used a public exchange of e-mails in The Observer to brand critics of the Government's law and order agenda as "out of touch... with the realities of people's lives".

In his speech at the London School of Economics, Mr Clarke will hail the historic record of the free press in attacking dictatorship and totalitarianism and promoting democracy.

But he will say that, as democracy has advanced around the world, the modern press has begun to apply epithets once wielded against tyrannies to describe the legitimate actions of democratic governments.

Terms such as "fascist", "police state", "apartheid" and "Holocaust" and accusations of "hijacking democracy" or "destroying the rule of law" could not be used against modern democratic politicians without throwing the truth out of the window, he will argue.

Mr Clarke will urge the media to take on board the "modern" concept that rights must be balanced by responsibilities.

While the concept of "human rights" has traditionally been seen primarily as a matter of individuals' right to be protected against the power of the state, they should now also reflect the right to protection from attack by terrorists or criminals, he will suggest.