Reuters 'country'

The hefty prison sentence just handed down on a US journalist in Burma underlines how authoritarians of all stripes can pick up and imprison journalists under the flimsiest of pretexts.

It also highlights the increased dangers that could be faced by Reuter people in countries where the UK is perceived as an enemy, or at least an antagonist, as a result of the identification of the UK as "our country" by one of the two hapless executives who signed the covenant in which Thomson Reuters "honours" the UK armed forces.

Further, the situation of anyone, not just journalists, linked to Reuters in any way and already in the sights of authoritarian regimes, is unlikely to be improved by this careless action.

I can't agree with Paul Holmes [Cut your losses, Thomson Reuters] whose comment, I feel, effectively lets the two covenant signatories off the hook. Their intentions may not have been anything but good (I'm sure they were) but in signing this document they were at best naive but also negligent in failing to consider just what it was they were doing or weigh the consequences it might have for Reuter people in the field, business representatives included. ■