The Guardian

====Sarah Tisdall====
In 1983, the paper was at the centre of a controversy surrounding documents regarding the stationing of [[cruise missile]]s in Britain that were leaked to ''The Guardian'' by civil servant [[Sarah Tisdall]]. The paper eventually complied with a court order to hand over the documents to the authorities, which resulted in a six-month prison sentence for Tisdall,<ref>{{cite news |last=Routledge |first=Paul |date=16 January 1994 |title=Profile: Hunter of the truth: Lord justice Scott: With the Government rattled, Paul Routledge looks at the man John Major now has to face &#124; Voices |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/profile-hunter-of-the-truth-lord-justice-scott-with-the-government-rattled-paul-routledge-looks-at-the-man-john-major-now-has-to-face-1407249.html |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308083546/https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/profile-hunter-of-the-truth-lord-justice-scott-with-the-government-rattled-paul-routledge-looks-at-the-man-john-major-now-has-to-face-1407249.html |archive-date=8 March 2021 |access-date=6 March 2016 |work=The Independent}}</ref> though she served only four. "I still blame myself", said [[Peter Preston]], who was the editor of ''The Guardian'' at the time, but he went on to argue that the paper had no choice because it "believed in the rule of law".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/sep/05/pressandpublishing.politicsandthemedia|title=A source of great regret|work=The Guardian|date=5 September 2005|location=London|last=Preston|first=Peter|access-date=13 December 2016|archive-date=2 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202082642/https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/sep/05/pressandpublishing.politicsandthemedia|url-status=live}}</ref> In a 2019 article discussing [[Julian Assange]] and the protection of sources by journalists, [[John Pilger]] criticised the editor of ''The Guardian'' for betraying Tisdall by choosing not to go to prison "on a fundamental principle of protecting a source".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Pilger |first1=John |title=John Pilger: The Assange Arrest Is A Warning From History |url=https://newmatilda.com/2019/04/14/john-pilger-the-assange-arrest-is-a-warning-from-history/ |access-date=3 May 2019 |publisher=New Matilda |date=14 April 2019 |archive-date=17 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190417005445/https://newmatilda.com/2019/04/14/john-pilger-the-assange-arrest-is-a-warning-from-history/ |url-status=live }}</ref>