Rolf Harris arrest lifts lid on Fleet Street's open secret Rolf Harris has been named as the latest celebrity to become embroiled in the ongoing investigation into historic sex abuse allegations. The Sun decided to publish details of the entertainer's arrest on suspicion of sex offences - information that had appeared on websites and social media, but that had until now stayed out of the mainstream press. The 83-year-old Australian, a TV fixture for decades for his music, art and as a presenter of TV shows on animals, was interviewed under caution by Scotland Yard officers on Operation Yewtree in November, five days after they had visited his home in Berkshire to find he wasn't there. The decision by the Sun to publish appeared to be a pre-emptive strike in a fresh freedom of speech battle between newspapers and lawyers to the famous and powerful. The information had been an open secret in Fleet Street newsrooms for months but had remained unpublished amid legal pressure from Harris's lawyers. The story about Harris had appeared on the Guido Fawkes blog in January, and Russell Brand tweeted an oblique reference to the allegations in March. A search of Harris's home came just five days ahead of the publication of the Leveson report into press standards. Harris, born in Perth, Western Australia, in 1930, emigrated to the UK at the age of 21. He enrolled an art school, but, after two years, he dropped out and instead started drawing on children's television programmes. A successful career in television - hosting programmes such as Cartoon Time - followed, accompanied by a substantial musical output that comprised 30 studio albums, 48 singles including Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport and Two Little Boys, which went to number one in 1969. The entertainer is the latest famous name to be arrested in Operation Yewtree, which was set up initially by police to investigate sexual abuse by the late Jimmy Savile. It is not clear what period of time the alleged offences date back to, but Harris denies wrongdoing. Starting with Leveson, a series of developments have seen lawyers try to pressurise television and newspapers not to name any individuals arrested. Typically, when an individual is arrested the police confirm their sex, age and location, but not their name, prompting a guessing game in newsrooms as to the individual's identity. Freedom of speech campaigners argue that naming arrest suspects provides valuable information to the public. "There's a really obvious chilling happening here on what are legitimate rights, and it is in the public interest to report if it's Rolf Harris who has been arrested as part of a major investigation," said Padraig Reidy, of Index on Censorship. Against a backdrop of the Leveson inquiry, a coalition of lawyers, judges and police groups have called for a ban on forces in England and Wales identifying people when they are arrested - meaning the public will know only in "exceptional" circumstances who has been detained. Leveson suggested that the public should be prevented from knowing the names of arrest suspects in all but "exceptional" circumstances. That follows the controversy surrounding Chris Jefferies, the Bristol man who was briefly arrested on suspicion of the murder of landscape architect Joanna Yeates at the beginning of 2012. Jefferies eventually received libel payouts from eight newspapers, including the Sun, because the titles had wrongly implied he could have been guilty. Subsequently, another man, Vincent Tabak was jailed for a minimum of 20 years for her murder. Lawyers for Harris explicitly cited the Leveson report in emails and letters aimed at stifling the news of his arrest, a tactic that proved successful until Friday. The lawyers, from the top London solicitors' firm Harbottle & Lewis, which also advises Prince Charles, warned one publisher "there is no public interest in publishing such content as is entirely self-evident following the publication of the Leveson report." One publisher was told it could be hit with an expensive damages bill even if it correctly named a police suspect, in line with a proposal the lawyers said had been recommended by two high court judges. Harbottle mentioned the BBC Newsnight report that erroneously linked Lord McAlpine with an allegation of child sex abuse and warned: "Given recent events ... we are very surprised and indeed highly concerned to note the content on your website." Campaigners for freedom of expression were quick to condemn the legal moves, describing as "alarming" the attempt to suppress the reporting of an accurate fact. "In any kind of case there can be circumstances where it is legitimate to withhold information on arrests but the more you looked at this Harris case you thought that this was not one of them," said Reidy. It does seem very odd that it has taken this long for a mainstream source to publish the fact. Harris is one of 12 people who have been arrested as part of Operation Yewtree since it was launched last October into historic sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile and others. Police have said they believe Savile was one of the UK's most proflific sex abusers, and the revelations prompted hundreds of women and men who claim to have been abused as children or teenagers in the 60s, 70s and 80s to come forward. Scotland Yard's investigation has three strands - one specifically looking at Savile, another looking at Savile and others, with the third strand dedicated to those who have come forward to report historic abuse unrelated to the disgraced star. Among the stars who have been questioned are Freddie Starr, Dave Lee Travis and comedian Jim Davidson, all of whom deny any wrongdoing. Gary Glitter, real name Paul Gadd, was also arrested but has not made a public statement. Stuart Hall, the BBC presenter, has been charged with rape allegedly committed in 1976 and indecent assault over three decades. A former BBC producer, Wilfred De'ath, arrested last year in Cambridgeshire over an allegation of indecent assault on a girl in the 1960s, will not face any charges. But a former driver for the BBC, David Smith, 66, has been charged with past sex offences following his arrest in December. Lisa O Carroll