it had been impossible to achieve that."The Guardian wrote: The Daily Telegraph wrote: Channel 4's former Chief Executive, Jeremy Isaacs, speaking at a public lecture that month, said he would have given the After Dark air-time to Adams: "Although I sympathise with what must have been a difficult decision, broadcasters are always going to be accused of self-censorship. Yasser Arafat was allowed on Channel 4 because he happened to represent a lot of people but I knew this would lead to criticism because he is one of many who believe it is right to use any means of obtaining power". The row was later placed in context by the academic study The Media and Northern Ireland: An alternative view is provided by Laura K. Donohue (writing in the Cardozo Law Review ), who summarises Professor Keith Ewing and Conor Gearty as follows: Following a debate in the House of Commons Liz Forgan of Channel 4 challenged this account in a letter to The Times: The producer later commented in an article in Lobster magazine: Series Three Tony Benn and "Out of Bounds" The first programme of the third series was titled Out of Bounds: "1988 was the year of the tri-centenary of the Bill of Rights, yet in May 1989, in the shadowy studio of Channel 4's After Dark programme, a group of former British and US intelligence agents discussed the merits and evils of new legislation on official secrets. When this legislation completes its processes through Parliament such a gathering is likely to become illegal." The Financial Times wrote: Tony Benn wrote in his diary, later published as The End of an Era:The Listener magazine described the programme: Richard Norton-Taylor reported on guests who did not appear because of concerns about contempt of court: "Michael Randle and Pat Pottle, who admitted helping the spy, George Blake, escape from prison in 1966... have been dropped from the... programme... Mr Randle and Mr Pottle were arrested and released on police bail last week after admitting in a book that they had helped Blake escape." Michael Randle eventually appeared on After Dark, fourteen years later, on 22 March 2003. Hillsborough and "Football – The Final Whistle?" On 20 May 1989, shortly after the Hillsborough disaster, After Dark invited bereaved parents to participate, which became a testament to their grief: A lengthy extract from what bereaved mother Eileen Delaney said can be read here. 'Blue' and "Drugs" A week later The Times wrote: Denis Healey and "Back in the USSR?" The programme the following week was described by ITN as being "about the changes in Soviet Russia. Former communist (and later British Foreign Secretary) Denis Healey; novelist Tatania Tolstoya and other Russians including journalist Vitali Vitaliev and dissident Vladimir Bukovsky." The Communist journal "Unity" later wrote "The last time I saw Bukovsky was on a Channel 4 programme After Dark in which he slaughtered the drinks trolley and got up the nose of the former Labour leader [sic] Denis Healey who seemed to work out pretty early that this bloke was not the best of people." Edward Heath On 10 June 1989 "in the course of a bad-tempered late-night television discussion programme during the European election campaign in June, [former Prime Minister Edward Heath] contemptuously rejected the possibility, posed by the former American Defence Secretary Richard Perle, that the political map of Europe was about to be transformed: 'Does anyone seriously believe that these satellite countries are going to become free democracies and does anyone really believe that Moscow is going to see the disintegration of the Soviet empire? This was the first