Al-Jazeera has angered the US for its coverage of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

LONDON, November 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – British newspapers Wednesday, November 23, accused their government of threatening to prosecute them if they published a leaked document claiming US President George W. Bush threatened to bomb the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera.

This is the first time the government has threatened newspapers in this way although it has obtained court injunctions against newspapers, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

The Daily Mirror reported on Tuesday, November 22, that British Prime Minister Tony Blair talked Bush out of launching an air strike against Al-Jazeera's headquarters in Qatar, a key US ally, during an April 16, 2004, meeting at the White House.

Citing a top-secret memo from Blair's office, the paper said Bush was angered by the network's coverage of the uprising in the western Iraqi city of Fallujah.

The Mirror said Wednesday that Attorney General Peter Goldsmith warned it later that the publication of any further details from the document would be a breach of the Official Secrets act.

Goldsmith threatened an immediate High Court injunction unless the Mirror confirmed it would not publish further details.

"We have essentially agreed to comply," the newspaper said.

Both The Guardian and The Times published similar articles saying newspaper editors could be prosecuted if they revealed contents of the document.

Unprecedented

The British government has never prosecuted editors for publishing the contents of leaked documents, including highly sensitive ones about the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, the Guardian reported on Wednesday.

The Secrets Act makes it an offence to possess government information, or a document from a civil servant, if that person discloses it without lawful authority.

The Mirror said the memo turned up in the office of then British lawmaker Tony Clarke, a member of Blair's Labour Party, in May 2004.

Civil servant David Keogh is accused under the Act of handing it to Clarke's former researcher Leo O'Connor.

Both are to appear at Bow Street Magistrates Court in London next week.

Clarke returned the memo to Blair's office. He said O'Connor had behaved "pefectly correctly".

Al-Jazeera has been severely criticized by Washington for its coverage of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and its facilities have been hit by US bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The No 10 memo now raises fresh doubts over US claims that previous attacks against Al-Jazeera staff were military errors, the Mirror said.

During the US military campaign against Afghanistan in 2001, Al-Jazeera gained worldwide fame after being the only news channel on the ground and giving detailed coverage, but the station's Kabul office was knocked out by two US smart bombs.

An Al-Jazeera reporter was killed and three other employees were wounded by an American air strike during the US invasion to Baghdad in 2003.

During the 1999 air campaign over Kosovo, US warplanes targeted Yugoslavia's state television network. NATO officials argued it was a legitimate target as the propaganda arm of the Yugoslav government.

Chief editor of Arabic daily Al-Quds El-Arabi told Al-Jazeera the reports about the US administration's pondering of bombing the Doha-based all-news channel is just another proof of Washington's "complete negligence" of freedom of the press or human rights.

"Reporters and journalists are now voicing deep anger and fury at the US administration's reported intentions," Abdul Bari Atwan said.