Reacting to the charges against former GCHQ employee Katharine Gun being dropped, her Liberty solicitor James Welch said:

“It is fantastic news that the Government has decided to drop these vindictive charges against Katharine. 

We took her case on because we were appalled that a whistleblower, acting in good conscience, should be threatened with imprisonment for exposing the fact that our government had been asked by the US to act unlawfully and to undermine the deliberations of the UN Security Council. It is worth pointing out that we still don’t know whether the American request was ever acted upon. 

What this case shows is that the Official Secrets Act must be urgently and radically reformed. People like Katharine who highlight serious wrongdoing on the part of the security services must not face prosecution and the prospect of prison.”