Self-tapping screws

Pity Sir Ian Blair isn't a prison officer. Then that headline might make sense.

Anyway, the next few days - or even, given the seriousness, the next few hours - will show whether it is regarded as okay for the country's top police officer to make covert recordings of phone conversations with the attorney general. "Unconstitutional, unethical and quite possibly illegal", said an almost speechless Shami Chakrabarti on the Today prog this morning. (A state which, she quickly admitted, is not great for radio.) Ian Blair could be on his way out.

As that develops, freelance hacks' thoughts turn to the old question - can we record telephone conversations with interviewees, without letting them know we are doing it?

The short answer is - yes, it's okay. Though a lot of people don't know that.

Many journalists assert confidently that you must always get the interviewee's permission first. Wrong. They are generally quoting from an earlier law, no longer operative. Or thinking about the US, where in some states secret taping is a felony.

The key bit of law now is the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA). It says that it could be an offence to attach a recorder to the line to intercept a phone conversation. But only if you make some of the contents available to a third party. If it is for your own use, as a back-up to your notes, you don't have to inform the other person.

In any case, the offence is not criminal but a civil one. The aggrieved party would have to take a civil action against you.

And it is worth noting that the RIPA law covers only recordings made by a physical attachment to the telecommunication system. If you use a speakerphone and a ordinary mike, or an in-ear mike to make the recording, there is no offence.

Two further points:

* This is about recording calls that you are involved in. Recording calls between two other parties is definitely dodgy. That's spying or surveillance or something, not everyday journalism.

* Interception of a phone line for a recording is not prohibited if you have reasonable grounds for assuming the other party is outside the UK

Les