MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: Britain has just seen an epic battle in which liberty was victorious

The great Chinese tyrant and mass-murderer Mao Zedong used to say that power grows out of the barrel of a gun, which in his case it certainly did. 

By contrast, freedom – that great restraint on power – has to be cultivated like a garden.

It has so many enemies that it only flourishes where it is encouraged, nourished and above all guarded from the many forces which seek to suppress or control it. 

Its survival is a constant struggle, taking many forms.

And this country has just witnessed such a battle, in which liberty came out on top. The victory of The Mail on Sunday and its sister the Daily Mail in the High Court last week is a highly significant moment.

A great gathering of important and, in some cases, wealthy people had sought to claim that these newspapers had been acting in a lawless and underhand way to get information about them.

They included Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, fifth in line to the throne.

But the claims of Prince Harry and his allies failed utterly in court. In a highly detailed and comprehensive judgment, Mr Justice Nicklin found their case was not supported by evidence and dismissed all the allegations.

The victory of The Mail on Sunday and its sister the Daily Mail in the High Court last week is a highly significant moment. Prince Harry and others had sought to claim that these newspapers had been acting in a lawless and underhand way to get information about them

There was no equivocation. The claimants’ case failed. Let us be clear here. Had it gone the other way, the damage done to the Press in general would have been huge and lasting. It is fair to say that every enemy of Press freedom – and there are many – would have rejoiced.

How much safer and softer life would be for politicians, such as Lord Mandelson, if there had been no Daily Mail to expose their various wrongdoings. 

The work of The Mail on Sunday has been crucial in exposing the Epstein case and the way its tentacles found their way into Britain. Bad people, incompetent people, greedy people and those who are too powerful, all live in fear of the free Press.

By contrast, the powerless, the mistreated, the cheated, the victims of injustice or bad government, all know they can turn to the free Press to help them.

Our loyal readers, who rightly require from us lively and independent reporting of the affairs of the nation, play a crucial part in this. We might not go as far as the great American democrat Thomas Jefferson, who declared that he would rather have newspapers without a government than a government without newspapers. 

There has to be a mid-point between these two states of affairs. But we very much know what he meant.

Of course, it was never likely that anyone would make a direct assault on the free Press, demanding that it be muzzled by law. Instead, the attacks come from one flank or another, alleging wrongdoing so as to encourage the creation of state control by stealth.

Many on the modern Left, who pretend to favour freedom, would in reality love there to be a weak, compliant Press, much like the BBC, which is such a loyal servant of the establishment. They will have been deeply disappointed by last week’s court ruling.

And, as so often, it is a very good thing when such people are disappointed.