Firstly there was the fall out from the courageous decision by Rusbridger to report the Snowden revelations of US spying in the world’s private communications. That resulted in a heavy-handed attack on the paper’s head office by a few leading politicians and spooks. I wonder if the administration of the day, fearful of US apoplexy and unpredictability, threatened the Guardian with cancellation of its license.

Secondly, the paper embarked on a bold initiative to globalise its readership with editions appearing in the States and Australia. Doing that may have introduced new restrictions on what it was allowed to say.