Editing Clive Ponting (section)

===''General Belgrano'' papers===
While a senior civil servant at the [[Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)|United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence]] (MoD), Ponting sent two documents, subsequently nicknamed "the crown jewels",<ref>{{cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1985/mar/20/official-secrets-legislation#column_613 |title=Official Secrets Legislation |last=Elton |first=Rodney |date=20 March 1985|work=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]] |pages=HL Deb vol 461 c613 |no-pp=y|quote=the highly classified chronology prepared by Mr. Ponting now known as 'the crown jewels' |accessdate=1 December 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1985/apr/03/the-tribunal#column_1242 |title=The Tribunal |last=Kaufman |first=Gerald |date=3 April 1985 |work=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]] |pages=HC Deb vol 76 c1242 |no-pp=y|quote=those fabulous Belgrano 'crown jewels', which we were told were matters of the greatest secrecy|accessdate=1 December 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1985/jun/13/defence-estimates-1985#S6CV0080P0_19850613_HOC_296 |title=Defence Estimates 1985 |last=Dalyell |first=Tam |date=13 June 1985|work=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]] |pages=HC Deb vol 80 c1057 |no-pp=y|quote=Ponting&nbsp;... compiled the 'crown jewels' |accessdate=1 December 2017}}</ref> to Labour MP [[Tam Dalyell]] in July 1984 concerning the sinking of the Argentine navy warship ''[[ARA General Belgrano|General Belgrano]]'', a key incident in the 1982 [[Falklands War]]. After Ponting admitted revealing the information, the Ministry of Defence suspended him without pay.<ref name=NoPay>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/11314284/Margaret-Thatcher-warned-officials-not-to-be-too-harsh-on-Belgrano-whistleblower.html|newspaper= The Daily Telegraph|title=Margaret Thatcher warned officials not to be too harsh on Belgrano whistleblower|date=30 December 2014|access-date=17 December 2017|first1=Edward |last1=Malnick}}</ref> On 17 August 1984, he was charged with a criminal offence under Section 2 of the [[Official Secrets Act 1911]].<ref name=BBC-PublicInterest/><ref name=NoPay/> The Prime Minister, [[Margaret Thatcher]], had his pay reinstated once she had been briefed on what had happened.<ref name=NoPay/> Ponting's defence at the trial was that the matter and its disclosure to a Member of Parliament were in the public interest.<ref name=BBC-PublicInterest>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13430012 |work=BBC News |title=Clive Ponting case: Where is the investigators' report? |first=Martin |last=Rosenbaun |date=18 March 2011}}</ref> It was the first case under the Official Secrets Act that involved giving information to Parliament. Although Ponting expected to be imprisoned, he was acquitted by the [[Juries in England and Wales|jury]]. The acquittal came despite the judge's [[direction to the jury]], and hence by definition a "[[perverse verdict]]". The judge, Sir [[Anthony McCowan]], "had indicated that the jury should convict him",<ref name=BBC-TSOSA>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/216868.stm|title=Troubled history of Official Secrets Act|publisher=[[BBC]]|date=18 November 1998|accessdate=8 June 2015|quote=It was hailed as a victory for the jury system. The judge had indicated that the jury should convict him.}}</ref> and had ruled that "the public interest is what the government of the day says it is".<ref>{{Cite news |title=Clodagh Hartley, chequebooks … and a Clive Ponting moment |last=Preston |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Preston|newspaper=The Observer |date=30 November 2014 |url= https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/nov/30/clodagh-hartley-chequebooks-clive-ponting-sun-whitehall-editor}}</ref>

In 1985, Ponting came across the one file about [[Operation Cauldron]]—1952 secret biological warfare trials that had led to a trawler being accidentally doused with plague bacteria off the [[Hebrides]]—that had not been destroyed, and confidentially told ''[[The Observer]]'' newspaper about it,<ref name=guardobit>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/aug/06/clive-ponting-obituary |title=Clive Ponting obituary |newspaper=The Guardian |author=David Leigh |date= 6 August 2020}}</ref> leading to a story that July headlined "British germ bomb sprayed trawler".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://uploads.guim.co.uk/2020/08/06/pontingcrop.jpg|title=British germ bomb sprayed trawler|newspaper=The Observer|author1=David Leigh|author2=Paul Lashmar|date=July 1985}}</ref>

Ponting resigned from the civil service on 16 February 1985. In May 1987, he made an [[After Dark (TV programme)#Peter Hain, Clive Ponting, Peter Utley, Colin Wallace and "Secrets"|extended appearance]] on the first ever edition of [[Channel 4]]'s ''[[After Dark (TV series)|After Dark]]'' discussion programme, alongside among others [[Colin Wallace]], [[T. E. Utley]] and [[Peter Hain]].