Met police to use the official Secrets Act to try to get the Guardian to reveal source of phone-hacking story

This is an extract from an article on the Independent about the resent step of the Met police to use the official Secrets Act to try to get the Guardian to reveal source of phone-hacking story

Lawyers acting for the Met are planning to use the Official Secrets Act at an Old Bailey hearing on Friday that, if successful, will require The Guardian to hand over evidence identifying sources of key documents used in the newspaper's phone hacking coverage.

Leading legal figures said The Guardian may have been "caught in the crossfire" generated by the Met's new commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe who last week said the relationship between police and media had "gone too far". The court action, according to one senior judicial figure, was "an inevitable consequence of the Met being accused of being too close to the media".

He said: "The allegation levelled against the Met ... on phone hacking is that they were too close, too cosy with the News Of The World. The legal question now being asked is this: does the same not apply to The Guardian about information they may have been given?"

Others suggested a court ruling would test "if the law here is consistent and that ethical standards have been consistently applied”.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/met-ready-to-fight-over-...  

This is the headline of one of the articles on the Guardian: Met's threats to Guardian are 'direct attack on free press', say lawyers http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/17/met-threats-guardian-at... 

And this article on the Guardian website summarises some opinions of people in the industry industry: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/18/metropolitan-police-gua... 

What do you think about all this?