{"id":11823,"date":"2022-11-17T10:57:16","date_gmt":"2022-11-17T10:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/?p=11823"},"modified":"2024-05-03T10:23:05","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T09:23:05","slug":"media-organisations-warn-of-danger-to-public-interest-journalism-from-national-security-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/17\/media-organisations-warn-of-danger-to-public-interest-journalism-from-national-security-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Media Organisations Warn Of Danger To Public Interest Journalism From National Security Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Media organisations, including the News Media Association, have called on government to amend the National Security Bill legislation by adding in a public interest defence. The Bill returned to the House of Commons yesterday and in its current form, is set to weaken protections against police accessing journalistic materials, media organisations have warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other organisations include the Society of Editors, Index on Censorship, the National Union of Journalists, openDemocracy, and Reporters Without Borders. Most have called for a public interest defence clause to be included within the Bill. The Campaign for Freedom of Information, Article 19 and Guardian News and Media have also made submissions to government identifying serious issues with the legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NMA has repeatedly called for a statutory public interest defence clause in the Bill to ensure that individuals are not reliant on the \u201cdiscretion of the Attorney General, Director of Public Prosecutions or Crown Prosecution Service not to bring proceedings, or upon their interpretation of guidance that can be varied at any time.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kevan Jones, a Labour MP, tabled an amendment that would introduce this clause to the Bill. In the Times yesterday<\/a>, Mr Jones said: \u201cThis cross-party call would mean the introduction of a statutory public interest defence, which would protect individuals who are forced to break the Official Secrets Acts for the greater good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA structured defence tightens the law, so that only those who do the right thing are afforded greater protection and those who try to abuse the law are less likely to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October, NMA legal director, Sayra Tekin, wrote to Home Office Minister, Tom Tugenhat MP, warning that the current omission marks \u201ca grave oversight\u201d which would \u201cthreaten public accountability\u201d and would likely have a chilling effect on investigative journalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spokesperson for Guardian News and Media said: \u201cThe lack of a statutory public interest defence and the extremely harsh criminal penalties mean the draft National Security Bill threatens to chill whistleblowing, undermining public access to information and the democratic role of high quality journalism in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is vital that the government follows the advice of its own Law Commission and places a statutory public interest defence at the heart of the bill in order to protect public interest journalism and freedom of expression.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Security Bill has reached the last stages in the House of Commons and is scheduled to pass to the House of Lords for its second reading on 6 December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Media organisations, including the News Media Association, have called on government to amend the National Security Bill legislation by adding in a public interest defence. The Bill returned to the House of Commons yesterday and in its current form, is set to weaken protections against police accessing journalistic materials, media organisations have warned. Other organisations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,1,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-security-bill","category-news","category-pressfreedom","national-security-bill","news","pressfreedom"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMedia Organisations Warn Of Danger To Public Interest Journalism From National Security Bill - News Media Association<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/17\/media-organisations-warn-of-danger-to-public-interest-journalism-from-national-security-bill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Media Organisations Warn Of Danger To Public Interest Journalism From National Security Bill - News Media Association\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Media organisations, including the News Media Association, have called on government to amend the National Security Bill legislation by adding in a public interest defence. The Bill returned to the House of Commons yesterday and in its current form, is set to weaken protections against police accessing journalistic materials, media organisations have warned. Other organisations […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/17\/media-organisations-warn-of-danger-to-public-interest-journalism-from-national-security-bill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News Media Association\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-17T10:57:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-05-03T09:23:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/NMA_Logo_RGB-e1685440231309.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"199\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Laura Skerrett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Laura Skerrett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/17\/media-organisations-warn-of-danger-to-public-interest-journalism-from-national-security-bill\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/17\/media-organisations-warn-of-danger-to-public-interest-journalism-from-national-security-bill\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Laura Skerrett\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/#\/schema\/person\/81b99f6af1818fbce2b8cb3fe8e48ad0\"},\"headline\":\"Media Organisations Warn Of Danger To Public Interest Journalism From National Security Bill\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-17T10:57:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-05-03T09:23:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/17\/media-organisations-warn-of-danger-to-public-interest-journalism-from-national-security-bill\/\"},\"wordCount\":419,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National Security Bill\",\"News\",\"Press Freedom\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/17\/media-organisations-warn-of-danger-to-public-interest-journalism-from-national-security-bill\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/17\/media-organisations-warn-of-danger-to-public-interest-journalism-from-national-security-bill\/\",\"name\":\"Media Organisations Warn Of Danger To Public Interest Journalism From National Security Bill - News Media Association\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-17T10:57:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-05-03T09:23:05+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/17\/media-organisations-warn-of-danger-to-public-interest-journalism-from-national-security-bill\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/17\/media-organisations-warn-of-danger-to-public-interest-journalism-from-national-security-bill\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/17\/media-organisations-warn-of-danger-to-public-interest-journalism-from-national-security-bill\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Media Organisations Warn Of Danger To Public Interest Journalism From National Security Bill\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/\",\"name\":\"News Media Association\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"News Media Association\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/nma-logo.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/nma-logo.svg\",\"width\":236,\"height\":79,\"caption\":\"News Media Association\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/#\/schema\/person\/81b99f6af1818fbce2b8cb3fe8e48ad0\",\"name\":\"Laura Skerrett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f590836381bd4a3a15db8736f7bb9c582f17e4515b4dda8cebfb9c593dd2e5f2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f590836381bd4a3a15db8736f7bb9c582f17e4515b4dda8cebfb9c593dd2e5f2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Laura Skerrett\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/blog\/author\/lauranewsmediauk-org\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Media Organisations Warn Of Danger To Public Interest Journalism From National Security Bill - News Media Association","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/17\/media-organisations-warn-of-danger-to-public-interest-journalism-from-national-security-bill\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Media Organisations Warn Of Danger To Public Interest Journalism From National Security Bill - News Media Association","og_description":"Media organisations, including the News Media Association, have called on government to amend the National Security Bill legislation by adding in a public interest defence. The Bill returned to the House of Commons yesterday and in its current form, is set to weaken protections against police accessing journalistic materials, media organisations have warned. Other organisations […]","og_url":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/17\/media-organisations-warn-of-danger-to-public-interest-journalism-from-national-security-bill\/","og_site_name":"News Media Association","article_published_time":"2022-11-17T10:57:16+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-05-03T09:23:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":500,"height":199,"url":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/NMA_Logo_RGB-e1685440231309.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Laura Skerrett","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Laura Skerrett","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/17\/media-organisations-warn-of-danger-to-public-interest-journalism-from-national-security-bill\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/17\/media-organisations-warn-of-danger-to-public-interest-journalism-from-national-security-bill\/"},"author":{"name":"Laura Skerrett","@id":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/#\/schema\/person\/81b99f6af1818fbce2b8cb3fe8e48ad0"},"headline":"Media Organisations Warn Of Danger To Public Interest Journalism From National Security Bill","datePublished":"2022-11-17T10:57:16+00:00","dateModified":"2024-05-03T09:23:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/17\/media-organisations-warn-of-danger-to-public-interest-journalism-from-national-security-bill\/"},"wordCount":419,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/#organization"},"articleSection":["National Security Bill","News","Press Freedom"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/17\/media-organisations-warn-of-danger-to-public-interest-journalism-from-national-security-bill\/","url":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/17\/media-organisations-warn-of-danger-to-public-interest-journalism-from-national-security-bill\/","name":"Media Organisations Warn Of Danger To Public Interest Journalism From National Security Bill - News Media Association","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-11-17T10:57:16+00:00","dateModified":"2024-05-03T09:23:05+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/17\/media-organisations-warn-of-danger-to-public-interest-journalism-from-national-security-bill\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/17\/media-organisations-warn-of-danger-to-public-interest-journalism-from-national-security-bill\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/17\/media-organisations-warn-of-danger-to-public-interest-journalism-from-national-security-bill\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Media Organisations Warn Of Danger To Public Interest Journalism From National Security Bill"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/","name":"News Media Association","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/#organization","name":"News Media Association","url":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/nma-logo.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/nma-logo.svg","width":236,"height":79,"caption":"News Media Association"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/#\/schema\/person\/81b99f6af1818fbce2b8cb3fe8e48ad0","name":"Laura Skerrett","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f590836381bd4a3a15db8736f7bb9c582f17e4515b4dda8cebfb9c593dd2e5f2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f590836381bd4a3a15db8736f7bb9c582f17e4515b4dda8cebfb9c593dd2e5f2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Laura Skerrett"},"url":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/blog\/author\/lauranewsmediauk-org\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11823"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11835,"href":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11823\/revisions\/11835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}