Skillful evader of UK's tough libel laws

By Simon Bond

       Private Eye, a satirical magazine in the UK that is the scourge of the pompous, indiscreet and those who are unfortunate enough to have become famous, will be toasting the appointment last week of Janet Street-Porter as editor of The Independent on Sunday.
       Street-Porter has a reputation for her brash, opinionated and outspoken views and is set to provide stories and gossip that will run and run in The Eye.
       In fact in the latest issue, published less than a week after her appointment, Street-Porter accounted for no less than three pages of sniping copy in the style for which The Eye is so well known.
     The Eye has a steady circulation of around 200,000 copies per bi-weekly issue and is valued at over $16 million. 
      Not bad for a magazine that was started in 1961 with $750 and at the time read like boys' school newsletter and offered the production values of a fanzine.
      However, The Eye's achievement is much more than financial growth. Not only has kept some of the UK's greatest comedians more or less gainfully employed over the years--including Willy Rushton, Peter Cook and current editor
Ian Hislop-- it has also habitually incurred the wrath of the rogues of Britain's media, political and industrial establishment, to the eternal delight of its readers.
    The Eye has fought--and often lost-- innumerable libel actions. Some of these have seriously threatened to shut down the magazine, and the title has only been saved by donations from its readers. It's pleas for cash have always been irreverent and usually resulted in substantial sums of being sent in.
      The Eye's Banana Balls Appeal was launched to pay for its legal battle against Sonia Sutcliffe, wife of The Yorkshire Ripper--a mass murderer -- and its Goldenballs fund was formed to tide The Eye through its 1970's run-ins with industrialist Sir James Goldsmith.
     Another of The Eye's long running feuds was with Robert Maxwell, ill-fated proprietor of the The Mirror Group newspapers, among other publishing interests. Maxwell's battle against The Eye resulted in the magazine being withdrawn from the UK's largest news retail chain, WH Smiths, for much the 1980's.
      Of course, The Eye was ultimately triumphant when Maxwell "died at sea" in the midst of the financial scandal that shook his empire to the ground. 
    But for all of its cutting-edge satire, The Eye is a very traditional magazine. Much of its structure has barely changed over the last 30 years. This is often cited as the key to its success and the loyalty of its readership.
    The Eye is not an easy first-time read-- conditioned by the habitual dodging of writs, many of its articles are written in a semi-code that can only be deciphered by the diligent study of the many issues of the magazine. For example, the fictitious proprietor of The Eye is the referred to as the omnipotent "Lord Gnome."
       Gnome is often reported as aping the more ludicrous behavior of his Fleet Street contemporaries. In the latest issue,  for example, Lord Gnome uses his column to defend the appointment of his "longtime companion and personal masseuse, Ms Rita Chevrolet," as editor-in-chief of the Gnome on Sunday.   Clearly this tongue-in-cheek editorial was not meant to be confused with the recent appointment of Ms. Street Porter as editor-in-chief of The Independent on Sunday. 

GUIDE TO THE EYE

A guide to the columns of The Eye:
      The Colour Section--Always printed in black and white, this first right-hand page of the magazine has broken some of the most intriguing political and corporate scandals over the last 30 years, including the bugging of the former Labour Party Prime Minister by British intelligence and the cover-up of the UK's own home-grown 'Arms to Iraq' affair.
      Street of Shame--The Eye is a great favorite with Fleet Street journalists and this column exposes the pomposity of editors and often let's you know who's about to be sacked before they know it themselves.
     The Curse of Gnome--Lord Gnome is the  fictitious proprietor of The Eye and his curse is inflicted on anyone who dares to issue a writ against the magazine. Whenever ill occurs to a former litigant--and it usually does--the story is extensively written up by The Eye, under the ominous heading "The Curse of Gnome."
     Eye-Need--A bizarre footnote in the history of The Eye. For decades the classified advertising section of the magazine has carried the category listing, "Eye Need." These advertisements are pleas for cash donations from readers, along with a bank account number for payment. There is no evidence that anyone has ever benefited from placing such an advertisement but issue after issue the section is full. One of this week's less compelling cases reads: "More money than sense? Excellent. Send some to me. Abbey National Bank 090126, 20480357. Thanks. All replies answered. Box 1680."

-Simon Bond writes from outside London.