Another means of intimidating the press was
for the parliamentary authorities to enforce
its order against the publication of debates.
In February 1771, the Commons summoned
two newspaper printers to the bar and,
when they failed to appear, ordered their
arrest. However, the printers—protected by
Wilkes and his supporters—sought refuge in
the City of London, where the magistrates
insisted that only City officials could make
arrests within its jurisdiction. For refusing
its orders to hand over the printers, the
Commons then imprisoned two of the City
magistrates, the Lord Mayor Brass Crosby
(1725–93) and Alderman Richard Oliver
(1735–84), who were both MPs, in the Tower
of London. However, public opinion was
on the side of the newspapers and political
stalemate was reached. When Crosby and
Oliver’s confinement lapsed at the end of
the parliamentary session that summer, the
Commons tacitly conceded defeat, finding itself
effectively powerless to control the publication
of its debates. Wilkes was apparently ready to
provoke a similar confrontation with the Lords
a few years later, but the challenge proved
unnecessary. The ban on strangers meant that
there were few further newspaper reports of
either House during the rest of that Parliament.
Once the next Parliament met in 1774,
parliamentary reporting in the newspapers
expanded very rapidly. Newspaper coverage
of the Irish Parliament began at the same time
and expanded just as quickly as in Britain.
https://www.parliament.uk/documents/lords-library/History-of-Hansard.pdf
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