Army chief has himself to blame for Prince Harry U-turn

Posted by Press Gazette on 25 May 2007 at 13:44
Tags: DA Notices, Press Gazette Leaders

It is a bit rich that journalists are now getting the blame for Prince Harry’s inability to serve in Iraq. General Sir Richard Dannatt said last Thursday that “a contributing factor to this increase in threat to Prince Harry has been the widespread knowledge and discussion of his deployment”.

But Dannatt might as well scold himself, because he must know that all the media coverage of Harry’s posting could have been avoided by judicious early use of a DA Notice.

Since 1912, all sorts of matters which could undermine national security are kept hush-hush by use of DA Notices. They have no force in law, but have worked perfectly well on a voluntary basis since they were introduced.