Campaigning freedom of information journalist Heather Brooke (right) who fought through the courts for MPs' expenses to be made public said last night she had "no problem" with the way the Telegraph has obtained and used its data on MPs. "I don't have a problem with what they did," she told a debate at the Frontline Club in London. "I have a problem with the society that makes the most economical way to get a story is by a cheque book and paying for it rather than playing by the rules and going to court."
Brooke fought a five year battle using Freedom of Information legislation to ensure that MPs' expenses would be made public.
Telegraph assistant editor Andrew Pierce would not be drawn by the debate chairman Roy Greenslade (top left) who suggested the paper had paid £75,000 for its agenda setting scoop.
Pierce said: "We are sticking to our guns and not discussing whether money changed hands but the story is in the public interest."
He added: "It's been terrific for circulation, terrific for the website but above all terrific for all of us." Pierce said the MPs' story which has run to 240 broadsheet pages in the Telegraph had added one million sales and proved there was still life in newspapers.
He denied the paper had been "soft on the Tories" saying it had published details on Conservative leader David Cameron's expenses but they had not been picked up by the rest of the media.
Brooke said the reaction to the MPs' story offered "a once in a lifetime opportunity to radically reform politics".
When it was suggested that it would've been better that a whistleblower had leaked the information on expenses for no payment, she said: "In this country whistleblowers get shafted very badly and lose their jobs."
Brooke also noted that in Britain there was little history of the press banding together and campaigning on press freedom issues and said the Sunday Telegraph would not pay the legal costs of one of its own journalists, Ben Leapman, when he had wanted to join with her FoI court action on MPs' expenses.
The Independent's editor Roger Alton praised the Telegraph's treatment of the MPs' story as "flawless and brilliant" and said Brooke deserved a "damehood".
Pic: Jon Slattery
Ben Leapman comments below:
Whist fully endorsing Roger Alton's call for a gong for Heather, I'd like to clarify her suggestion that the Sunday Telegraph would not pay my legal costs in our joint battle to secure details of MPs' expenses under the Freedom of Information Act. In fact I never asked my employer to pay for a lawyer because I took the view that journalists ought, in principle, be able to go to FoI tribunals themselves without the barrier of having to pay. I also took the view, probably rather arrogantly, that in this emerging field of law I was perfectly capable of putting the arguments directly without a lawyer. My employer helped by giving me the few days' time off that I needed to prepare the paperwork and attend the tribunal. In practice, my decision to be self-represented at the tribunal gave me the opportunity to sit alongside the lawyers representing Heather and the third journalist in the case, Jon Ungoed-Thomas, and to put questions directly to the Commons admin chief, Andrew Walker, about the point on which my case differed from Heather's and Jon's - whereas they wanted to see receipts, I also wanted addresses. I think the tactic worked, because we won hands down on all points, including the addresses, both at the tribunal and in the High Court (where the solicitor advocate Simon McKay represented me very ably for no fee). And I think the evidence that has emerged of 'flipping' and phantom mortgages, where addresses are required to pin down the wrongdoing, has proved me right on that score.
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