Editing Jonathan Aitken (section)

==Journalism and business==
He served as a [[war correspondent]] during the 1960s in [[Vietnam]] and [[Biafra]], and gained a reputation for risk-taking when he took [[LSD]] in 1966 as an experiment for an article in the London <!-- Use of 'London' only dates from 2009. -->''[[Evening Standard]]'' and had a [[bad trip]]: "this drug needs police, the Home Office and a dictator to stamp it out".<ref name="PP-2004">{{Cite news |last=Adams |first=Tim |date=8 February 2004 |title=Pilgrim's progress |publisher=www.guardian.co.uk |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2004/feb/08/conservatives.religion |access-date=1 October 2009}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Real Jonathan Aitken |url=http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/R/real_lives/aitken.html |website=Channel 4}}</ref>

He was also a journalist at [[Yorkshire Television]] from 1968 to 1970, presenting the regional news show ''[[Calendar (News)|Calendar]]''. Aitken was the first person to be seen on screen from Yorkshire Television when it began broadcasting.<ref>{{Cite news |date=21 July 2008 |title=YTV 40 years old – A voice for Yorkshire |work=Yorkshire Evening Post |url=http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/features/YTV-40-years-old-.4307767.jp |access-date=15 March 2010}}</ref>

In 1970, Aitken was acquitted at the [[Old Bailey]] of charges of breaching section 2 of the [[Official Secrets Act 1911]], when he photocopied a report about the British government's supply of arms to [[Nigeria]], and sent a copy to ''[[The Sunday Telegraph]]'' and to [[Hugh Fraser (British politician)|Hugh Fraser]], a pro-Biafran ([[Nigerian Civil War]]) Tory MP. As a result of the case he was dropped as the Conservative candidate for the [[Thirsk and Malton]] parliamentary constituency.<ref>{{Cite news |date=7 December 1998 |title=Jonathan Aitken – a 'swashbuckling' life |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/229560.stm#law |access-date=26 March 2010}}</ref><ref>For an account of the trial, see Aitken, J., ''Officially Secret'', 1971, London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson</ref>

Aitken was managing director of the Middle Eastern division of [[Slater Walker]] in 1973–75 and chairman of R. Sanbaar Consultants Ltd from 1976 to at least 1982,<ref name=debrett/> and a director of arms exporting firm [[BMARC]] from 1988 to 1990.<ref name="timeline">{{Cite news |date=8 June 1999 |title=Jonathan Aitken: a timeline |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1999/mar/04/uk |access-date=26 March 2010}}</ref>