Editing Spycatcher (section)

==Publication and trial==
Wright wrote ''Spycatcher'' in [[Tasmania]], after his retirement from MI5. He first attempted publication of his memoirs in 1985.<ref name="bbc1">{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/13/newsid_2532000/2532583.stm |title=1988: Government loses Spycatcher battle |publisher=BBC News  |series=On This Day |date=13 October 2008}}</ref> The British government immediately obtained a court order banning publication in the UK, but the order applied only in the United Kingdom (and even then did not apply in Scotland with its [[Scots law|separate legal system]]), and the book continued to be available elsewhere. In September 1987, the UK government applied for similar orders to prevent publication in Australia, but future Prime Minister [[Malcolm Turnbull]], representing the publisher, successfully resisted the application, as he did on appeal in June 1988.<ref name="bbc2">{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/23/newsid_2528000/2528695.stm |title=1987: Ban lifted on MI5 man's memoirs |publisher=BBC News   |series=On This Day |date=23 September 2008}}</ref>

English newspapers attempting proper reporting about ''Spycatcher''{{'}}s principal allegations were served [[gag order]]s; on persisting, they were tried for [[contempt of court]]. These charges were eventually dropped. Throughout all this, the book continued to be sold in Scotland; moreover, Scottish newspapers were not subject to any English gag order, and continued to report on the affair. Quantities of the book easily reached English purchasers from Scotland, while other copies were smuggled into England from Australia and elsewhere. A notable television report at the time featured a reporter flying to Australia, and returning to England with ten copies of the book, which he declared to Heathrow airport's customs officers. After some discussion, he was allowed to take the books into England, as the customs service had not been told to confiscate them.

In mid-1987, [[Richard Scott, Baron Scott of Foscote|Mr Justice Scott]] lifted the ban on English newspaper reportage on the book. In late July, the [[Judicial functions of the House of Lords|Law Lords]] again barred reporting Wright's allegations.<ref>{{cite news |title=Judges Dilute Secrets Ban |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HkJAAAAAIBAJ&pg=3166,5816395&dq=peter+wright+spycatcher&hl=en |newspaper=[[The Glasgow Herald]] |date=25 July 1987 |page=3 |via=[[Google News Archive]] |publisher=Herald & Times Group}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Law Lords explain fears of setting traitors' charter |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=9RI1AAAAIBAJ&pg=2247,3093606&dq=peter+wright+spycatcher&hl=en |newspaper=[[The Glasgow Herald]] |date=14 August 1987 |page=8 |via=[[Google News Archive]] |publisher=Herald & Times Group}}</ref> ''[[The Daily Mirror]]'' published upside-down photographs of the three Law Lords, with the caption 'You Fools'.<ref name="timemagazine" /> British editions of ''[[The Economist]]'' ran a blank page with a boxed explanation that

{{blockquote|In all but one country, our readers have on this page a review of 'Spycatcher,' a book by an ex-M.I.5-man, Peter Wright. The exception is Britain, where the book, and comment on it, have been banned. For our 420,000 readers there, this page is blank – and [[wikt:the law is an ass|the law is an ass]].<ref name="timemagazine"/><ref name="newyorktimes">{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE0D91E30F934A3575BC0A961948260 |title=Unfit for British Print |access-date=20 January 2008 |date=7 August 1987 |newspaper=The New York Times |url-access=subscription |page=30}}</ref>}}

Eventually, in 1988, the book was cleared for legitimate sale when the Law Lords acknowledged that overseas publication meant it contained no secrets.<ref name="bbc1" /> However, Wright was barred from receiving royalties from the sale of the book in the United Kingdom. In November 1991, the [[European Court of Human Rights]] ruled that the British government had breached the [[European Convention on Human Rights]] in gagging its newspapers.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/spycatcher-and-press-freedom-1.811196 |title=Spycatcher and press freedom |newspaper=[[The Herald (Glasgow)|The Herald]] |date=27 November 1991 |publisher=Herald & Times Group}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.globalpolicy.org/nations/uksecret.htm |title=UK: New Calls for More Liberal State Secrets Law |website=[[Global Policy Forum]] |date=10 August 1998 |location=London}}</ref>
The accuracy of various allegations made in the book by Wright was questioned in a 1993 review of ''Spycatcher'' published by the [[Studies in Intelligence|Center for the Study of Intelligence]], an in-house think tank for the [[CIA]]. While admitting (on page 42) that the book included "factual data", the document stated that it was also "filled with [unspecified] errors, exaggerations, bogus ideas, and self-inflation".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/static/b871c0f81cf1862b6386edc125c5dc93/Of-Moles-and-Molehunters-1.pdf |title=Of Moles and Molehunters: A Review of Counterintelligence Literature, 1977-92  |date=1 October 1993 |publisher=Center for the Study of Intelligence |access-date=30 December 2020 |quote=CSI 93-002}}</ref>

The book has sold more than two million copies.<ref name="bbc1"/> In 1995, Wright died a millionaire from proceeds of his book.<ref name="independent">{{Cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-peter-wright-1617351.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220524/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-peter-wright-1617351.html |archive-date=24 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Obituary: Peter Wright |last=Bower |first=Tom |date=28 April 1995 |work=The Independent |access-date=11 February 2010 }}</ref>