PLATFORM FOR VOICES
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION is a basic human right. Such freedom is not the prerogative of politicians. Journalists are those in the privileged position of being able to assist everyone’s right to free speech. Through the dissemination of news, information, ideas and opinions, the press provides a platform for voices to be heard, acting as the public’s watchdog and holding authority to account.
Two years ago, with knife crime grabbing the headlines in many UK cities, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan called a summit of the Metropolitan Police and other authorities in the capital. This was of interest to many Londoners, but Mayor Khan banned the press and public from attending.
News organisations protested vehemently at first, but the opposition petered out. They should have been calling for an immediate judicial review of why local government was operating behind closed doors over such a vital issue.
It was left to journalists, through their professional body, to try to lift the blanket of secrecy. The Chartered Institute of Journalists (CIoJ) made a Freedom of Information request. It appealed the refusal to disclose what legal advice had been involved in the decision to shut out the media and ratepayers.
JUDGEMENT
A Tribunal judgement in April 2020 concluded that neither the Mayor’s office nor the Greater London Authority sought legal advice before deciding to hold their knife-crime summit and follow-up crime scrutiny committee meetings entirely in private.
Judge Holmes said in his ruling that the CIoJ had submitted that the holding of these meetings in this way was unlawful and a breach of Article 10 Freedom of Expression. The London Authority’s account of the meetings afterwards were nothing more than spin doctoring.
However, the Freedom of Information appeal was dismissed because legal advice had been sought, albeit after the authorities had been frightened by judicial review threats.
CHALLENGING
The CIoJ president said: “We sought to fight for the interests of professional journalists, by challenging and shining a light on grotesque abuses of open government and exposing a practice that needs to be stopped.”
Battles between politicians and the press have abated since the Leveson inquiry, but not disappeared. Continuing threats to press freedom include proposals for an online harms regime, tougher laws against information leaks, new reporting restrictions in courts and the use of state surveillance powers to uncover journalists’ sources.
The editorial media collectively recognises the dangers and is wholly opposed to the 2013 Royal Charter – that gave substantial power to politicians over press independence of action. Campaigns continue to promote freedom of expression, open government and open justice.
Meanwhile, that Royal Charter is on the statute books as the first significant regulation of the British press since newspaper regulation was abolished in 1695.
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