LONDON: While his government works on legislation to restrain the press, Prime Minister John Major is taking two magazines to court for publishing an old rumor about himself,
Major announced the libel suit Thursday after New Statesman and Society, a leftist weekly, reported a length about rumors that Major had an affair with a caterer. The magazine acknowledged that no.
Proof had been found to support the rumor.
Major is also suing Scallywag, a satirical magazine which published 4 version of the story in its January issue.
Lawyers for the woman, 41yearold Claire Latimer, announced ‘Thursday that she, too, issuing the two magazines.
Major married his wife, Norma, in 1970. They have a son and a daughter.
The case thrust Major into the center of a debate about press regulation, which has largely focused On reporting about the royal family, and it renewed the determination of some lawmakers to pass tougher regulations.
“PMs are getting more and more browned off at the distasteful and gratuitous muckraking that is going on,” Conservative lawmaker Ivan Lawrence told BBC radio.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 5, 1993
