Freedom of the Press is something we should cherish, so when the Duchess of Sussex won her case against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over five articles that reproduced parts of a “personal and private” letter to her father in August 2018, Downing Street (which as we all know means the Prime Minister has sanctioned it) has said that ‘A FREE press is “one of the cornerstones of any democracy, and that they (meaning the government) will be looking at the judgement carefully!

However, in the Guardian dated 24 Jul 2021, Nick Cohen wrote about ‘Who’ll defend our right to a free press? Not the ex-hack in No 10’, and I quote journalists have every right to be fearful of the prime minister’s proposed legislation (the Home Office proposes to “modernise” the Official Secrets Act … it has been decided that there can be no public interest defence for unauthorised disclosure.   An official or ‘reporter’ will not be able to escape jail by saying they had exposed abuse of power…)

This government is very good at spin; if it gets something wrong it either attacks or denigrates the person or organisation who made the claim, or it waits a short while and then gets an apology said as though that will white wash the event (and so far it often has!)

 

 

Links:

• Equality or Freedom of Expression?
• Free Press
• UK among worst in Western Europe for freedom of press after ‘staggering decline’, Reporters Without Borders index claims