UK government’s little-known proposed reforms to Britain’s Official Secrets Acts pose far-reaching threats to the media and the public’s right to know. They could land journalists and others in jail for 14 years for publishing information the government claims damages national security.
On the centenary of Ireland’s partition, Northern Ireland is changing. But the lessons from its recent violent ‘dirty war’, in which British agents colluded in killings, risk being ignored by the current British government.
A new book, revealing abuses by the British army in its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, illustrates how the Ministry of Defence and the military establishment try to censor, bully and threaten publishers and journalists, often successfully.
The new ‘authorised history’ of GCHQ, Britain’s largest intelligence agency, ignores or simply dismisses its most controversial activities as supposed scandals, giving a thoroughly one-sided account of the spy agency.
As US prosecutors lodge an appeal in their resolve to jail Julian Assange for espionage, a former British Cabinet minister has delivered a stinging attack on Britain’s extradition treaty with the US.
There is a real danger that the British judge’s ruling in the Julian Assange extradition case will encourage other governments to charge and seek to extradite journalists in the UK and elsewhere for exposing their military operations and human rights abuses.
After Declassified UK’s revelation that Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), known as MI6, ‘misled’ two inquiries into the arrest of a suspected British terrorist in Kenya, Richard Norton-Taylor outlines the long history of MI6 operating outside of democratic control.
The need for proper scrutiny of the UK’s security and intelligence agencies, such as MI5, MI6, GCHQ and the military’s special forces, is becoming increasingly urgent. A number of practical measures would make these agencies more transparent and accountable to the public.
Coronavirus is diverting attention away from an unprecedented but under-reported threat. Official secrecy, incompetence and lack of accountability in Whitehall are combining with government cronyism to represent an assault on the rule of law and Britain’s parliamentary democracy.
The British Ministry of Defence has blacklisted Declassified UK, a media organisation producing in-depth, critical journalism on UK foreign and security policies. It is the latest attempt by Whitehall to censor the media and the National Union of Journalists has called on Defence Secretary Ben Wallace to “intervene”.