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Gag on criminals 'will not work'

02.02.07 Katherine Rushton

Government proposals to stop criminals making money from books about their crimes will not work, say publishers.

Their comments come a week ahead of the deadline for responses to the Home Office consultation paper "Making Sure that Crime Doesn't Pay" (9th February). The document sets out four options, including making it a criminal offence for money to be received or paid to a convicted criminal for publications about their crimes.

"If [publishers] want to circumvent the system and name an offshore fund, what's to stop them putting it there?" said Weidenfeld & Nicolson publisher Alan Samson. "I think it's very hard to enforce that criminals don't get the money. If someone thinks there's commercial value in publishing a mea culpa, or a defiant book for that matter, they're going to find ways of getting round official channels."

Bill Campbell, publisher and co-founder of Mainstream, said: "There would be ways round, undoubtedly. It's easy enough for the criminal to tell the story to a third party who could approach the publisher with the inside scoop."

Macmillan, whose authors include ex-convict Jeffery Archer, said in a formal response to the consultation: "No proposal would prevent the publication of such writings. [The government should] allow market forces to determine whether or not the publication is read." The government plans have caused anger among some publishers.

John Blake, whose book by former paramilitary leader John Adair, due in March, is reported to have sparked the row, said the enquiry was "preposterous". "Some of these books serve as important historical documents--and quite honestly, if the criminals have gone to prison and served their time, the book helps rehabilitate them," he said.

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