The editor of a weekly newspaper is calling for an investigation to be held after a woman was arrested for speaking to a journalist.

Earlier this year the Falmouth-based Packet Series ran a story about a woman found dead at the bottom of a cliff. She had been having an affair with a married man and had allegedly borrowed thousands of pounds from him.

Following her death the man confessed to his wife - who wrote to the dead woman's family to ask for the money back.

The wife also told her story to a reporter at the Packet, but hours before it was due to publish a policeman called the paper and asked if it could be "hushed up".

When the paper refused and the story appeared on its front page the woman was arrested and charged.

She was accused of causing harassment to the dead woman's brother by sending "unpleasant correspondence" to him and "instructing a newspaper to print an article".

After reaching Truro Magistrates' Court the case was dropped - although the woman had to agree to be bound over.

Group editor Terry Lambert said the insinuation that a member of the public could instruct a paper to publish a story, or charging someone with harrassment for doing so, was "nonsense".

He said: "How, in a country whose legal system is supposed to enshrine freedom of speech, can the police prosecute a woman for talking to a newspaper?

"How could anyone with even a modicum of knowledge about how the media works believe that a member of the public can 'instruct a newspaper to publish an article'. And since when has it been an offence to write to somebody asking for the return of a debt?

"I don't know exactly what lies behind the police action in this case or why at least one officer was hell-bent on trying to suppress the story – even down to suggesting that evidence could be withheld from the public inquest into the woman's death. But I do believe senior officers should hold a thorough investigation.

"When a policeman tries to silence the press and – in my opinion – inappropriately attempts to use the law to punish a member of the public for talking to a journalist, we’re on the slippery slope towards a police state."