Guardian, 29 June 2006

by Owen Gibson

Asked to describe a politically subversive magazine, one might picture a tatty pamphlet rather than Vanity Fair, the American glossy packed with A-list stars and ads for luxury brands.

On June 18, a man was arrested in Whitehall under the Serious and Organised Crime and Police Act, which prevents demonstrations within a kilometre of parliament.

Steven Jago, who was carrying a placard bearing the George Orwell quote "In a time of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act", was later found by police to be in possession of several photocopies of Porter's article Letter from London: Blair's Big Brother Britain, printed in the latest issue of the magazine. Mr Jago claims that they were confiscated by police and he was told the article constituted "politically motivated material".

Porter, a vocal critic of Tony Blair's record on civil liberties, who recently took part in a detailed email exchange on the subject with Mr Blair in the Observer, said in his letter that the matter was of serious concern. "The word sedition was not used, but clearly that is the light in which the article was regarded by the Metropolitan police," he wrote.

Porter, who has the backing of Vanity Fair's publisher, Graydon Carter, said it was extremely worrying if police could not tell the difference between a mainstream publication and a "terrorist sheet".