A SECRET document disclosed to the spycops inquiry suggests that an undercover officer spied on journalists in the 1970s. 

The Metropolitan Police Special Branch document shows that a spycop was present at a meeting held by the editorial board of a publication called Indo-China. 

The meeting was held at a private flat in 1971 to discuss the publication’s future.  

“More emphasis would be made that the struggle for Vietnam was identical with the class war being fought in other capitalist  societies throughout the world,” the document stated. 

The Undercover Policing Inquiry is examining the tactics used by the Met’s Special Demonstration Squad, a top-secret unit that infiltrated hundreds of left-wing groups over 40 years. 

The squad was created in response to the anti-Vietnam-War movement in London in 1968. 

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) called on the inquiry to publish more documents relating to undercover policing and journalism.

General secretary Michelle Stanistreet said: “The NUJ is not surprised that Special Branch was attending and interfering with editorial meetings in the early 1970s. 
 
“The inquiry should be able to confirm or deny if undercover policing units and agents were put into media organisations.”