Ex-editor fined for TV licence protest over 'Sachsgate'

A former national newspaper editor who withheld his television licence fee in protest at the Sachsgate lewd message scandal has been fined £262, it emerged today.

Charles Moore, who edited the Sunday and Daily Telegraphs, refused to pay the £142.50 until presenter Jonathan Ross was sacked for his part in leaving obscene messages on Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs's phone.

Writing in the Telegraph today Moore said he was fined for using a colour TV without a licence during an appearance at Hastings magistrates' court yesterday. His protest came after messages left by Ross and comedian Russell Brand for Sachs were broadcast on Radio 2 in 2008.

Moore, 53, wrote: "It was against my conscience, I told the magistrates, to be made to pay for the weird ideology which thinks that cruel jokes by Ross are justified because they 'push the boundaries'."