This Government's worrying attack on freedom of the press

Yesterday journalists from the Parliamentary lobby walked out in solidarity with each other after journalists from some national papers and news sites were denied access to a briefing from Number 10 on the process of the UK negotiating the future relationship with the EU. Journalists tell us that this is unprecedented and prevents them from doing the vital scrutiny of the government they do. It's bad enough that Parliament is being cut out of proper scrutiny of the government as they have blocked Labour amendments to require this. We rely even more on the press to be able to ask questions and forensically analyse the government's position.I wanted to know why the Minister appears to believe the journalists were wrong. Did this event not take place? She could not answer my question. This attack on freedom of the press is not an isolated incident, but a worrying trademark of this Government and the Conservative Party led by Boris Johnson. Reports from journalists and the National Union of Journalism (NUJ) show the alarming implications on accountable political journalism. See NUJ’s full comment here: https://www.nuj.org.uk/news/government-must-stop-press-paranoia-says-nuj/

Posted by Thangam Debbonaire on Tuesday, February 4, 2020