(9.8.1998) Last week, history seemed to repeat itself when David Shayler, a former officer at the Libya desk of Britain‘s domestic security service, was arrested after threatening to disclose embarrassing agency secrets on the Internet. Newspapers that were poised to publish his allegations found themselves slapped with far-reaching injunctions in the name of national security.

Then, on Thursday, the newspaper The Guardian reprinted an article by The New York Times that described the British news media‘s inability to cover Mr. Shayler‘s story. It included details of Mr. Shayler‘s allegation that Britain‘s foreign intelligence service botched an assassination attempt against Muammar el-Qaddafi in 1996 — details subject to the injunction.