SIXTEEN

June-July 1971

The summer of 1971 was notable for three things: the death of Louis Armstrong, the Cod War developing between the UK and Iceland, and the massive media overkill about Victor Magister. While the accused spent his time on remand at a special prison in a secret location somewhere within Britain, newspapers, magazines and television companies began a series of investigations into the background of this mysterious figure.

Who was Victor Magister and where did he come from? Nobody could find any record of such a person until his arrival at the parish of Devil's End, making Magister an obvious alias. One of the broadsheets latched on to the Latin translation of Magister and renamed this supposed criminal mastermind 'the Master'. The name stuck and soon teams of investigative journalists began finding evidence pointing to the existence of the Master Gang - a team of terrorists responsible for many unexplained terrorist incidents from recent years.

Quickly added to Magister's list of alleged crimes was the series of attacks across Britain a year and half before known as Black Thursday. A World in Action documentary suggested that Black Thursday was actually an attempted coup by the Master Gang which had nearly succeeded. The Sunday Times 'Insight' team of investigative journalists discovered evidence that the Wenley Moor plague was actually the by-product of an attack on the nuclear research facility by the Master Gang. The plague was actually a radioactively accelerated virus that attacked the body's auto-immune system, initially passed on touch and then later becoming windborne. Neither of these scoops made any mention of the role of UNIT in each incident, nor of my previous investigations that had revealed the incidents in the first place.

These revelations were followed by a flood of similar stories. The Master Gang was soon blamed for the failure of everything from the Mars Probe series of rocket launches ('an attempt to destroy Britain's lead in the space race, thus shattering the credibility of our Empire' thundered the Daily Chronicle's leader the next day) through to the collapse of the World Peace Conference in London. After a few of these stories appeared, I began to see a pattern emerging.

I contacted Cassandra who was not happy to hear from me, especially over an open phone line. 'This is not a good time to talk, Whiti,' he whispered. 'I'll call you when I can.'

'Okay, but make it soon,' I insisted.

It was another two days before my source in the intelligence services finally got back to me. He confirmed my suspicion that the stories were the result of a series of carefully controlled leaks of information - some of it accurate, some of it fabricated - to different news media organizations. The plan was to resolve a whole series of embarrassments for the Government by placing the blame for them squarely at the door of Victor Magister and his Master Gang.

'But surely this is overkill,' I interjected. 'One or two well-planted stories I could understand but this is going way over the top. There's no way Magister will ever be able to get a fair trial anywhere in Britain: the case against him has been blatantly prejudiced by the media coverage.'

'That's the whole point,' Cassandra replied. 'The stick and the carrot, the stick and the carrot. Wait a few more days Whiti, you'll see what I mean.'

Mystified by his oblique explanation, I concentrated instead on securing my press accreditation for the trial of Victor Magister. This was going to be a three-ring circus and I wanted to be in the front row for all the action. But Cassandra's words returned to me a week later when the Lord Chamberlain's office made a shock announcement.

Due to the extensive media coverage prejudicing any chance of Victor Magister getting a fair trial in Britain, it had been decided that his case should be heard in camera before a tribunal of top judges. The statement also mentioned in passing that matters of vital national security would be compromised should a word of the proceedings be openly reported. The entire trial would be closed to the public and the media.

The stick and the carrot: now I realized what Cassandra had been alluding to. First the media was given a series of nice juicy carrots with all the leaks about the Master Gang. Now came the stick, the punishment to keep the media in line. As always, the intelligence services were a long way ahead of the media in their mind games.

The announcement about the Magister trial being in camera brought howls of fury from the media. At the forefront of protests about this show of high-handedness by the Government was BBC3's The Passing Parade programme. Of all the media, this show felt it had a right to report about the trial since it was by sabotaging the programme that Victor Magister was brought to justice in the first place.

Alex MacIntosh hosted a special edition of the show that night, where invited guests held a round-table discussion about the decision and its consequences for the media and the public. I phoned up Vincent and reminded him of the invitation to try my hand at television. He quickly had me drafted on to the panel of guests for the debate.

To my left sat noted journalist, writer and broadcaster Malcolm Muggeridge, while on my right were an uncomfortable spokesman from the Lord Chamberlain's office called Davis Jenkins and the editor of the Daily Chronicle, Peter Wise, recently given a knighthood for his 'services to the media'. The latter did his best to avoid all eye contact with me before the live programme went on air.