{"id":12319,"date":"2023-03-02T09:43:44","date_gmt":"2023-03-02T09:43:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/?p=12319"},"modified":"2024-05-03T10:23:04","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T09:23:04","slug":"government-moves-to-reassure-media-sector-over-national-security-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmediauk.org\/blog\/2023\/03\/02\/government-moves-to-reassure-media-sector-over-national-security-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>Government Moves To Reassure Media Sector Over National Security Bill<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A Minister has moved to reassure the media sector that journalism critical of the UK government which might \u201cincidentally be capable of assisting a foreign intelligence service\u201d will not be deemed a criminal offence under the new national security regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking on behalf of the government in a House of Lords debate on the Bill, Lord Sharpe of Epsom said it was \u201calmost inconceivable\u201d that \u201cgenuine journalism\u201d would be caught within the threshold for criminal activity.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lord Sharpe was speaking in response to an amendment moved by Lord Black of Brentwood designed to provide clarity and certainty by ensuring those working on articles or investigations for publication by recognised news publishers have a defence under the new regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lord Sharpe said: \u201cI want to reassure the media sector that the publication of an article that was critical of the UK government and which might incidentally be capable of assisting a foreign intelligence service, will not fall within scope of this offence. Nor would the handling of materials in the course of genuine journalistic activities fall within this offence, or the other offences in the Bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFor an offence to be committed under clause three, an individual would need to engage in conduct intending to materially assist a foreign intelligence service; or know (or should have known given the information they had at the time) it was likely that such conduct would do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNow the government may profoundly disagree with the conclusions of some journalists, but we will not hide behind the criminal law to suppress genuine competing views and it is almost inconceivable that genuine journalism will be caught within the threshold for criminal activity.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He added: \u201cThe test of &#8216;material assistance&#8217; is key. To be material, the assistance to the foreign intelligence service must be \u2018important\u2019, \u2018considerable\u2019 or \u2018in a significant way\u2019.\u202f As with all criminal offences, it will be the specific circumstances of the case that will be important and will be a matter for the prosecuting authorities, but we would expect prosecutions to involve those with known links to foreign intelligence services, including evidence of a relationship, tasking or payment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAbsent these links, the government struggles to envisage even the most provocative piece of journalism meeting the threshold for the offence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking earlier in the debate, Lord Black welcomed government amendments designed to protect journalism but said further clarity was needed to ensure journalism was robustly protected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He added: \u201cI have never believed that the new offences in this Bill would be used regularly to imprison journalists, and I do not believe that is what the government intends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBut the risk is there. The uncertainty is there. The lack of clarity in the law is there. The chilling effect is there. The damage to the public interest as a result is there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Responding to Home Office Minister Lord Sharpe\u2019s statement, News Media Association chief executive Owen Meredith said: \u201cWe welcome the government\u2019s reassurances that journalism will not be criminalised under this new national security regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cJournalism has a critical role to play in our democratic society and it is vital that there are no unintended consequences&nbsp;of these new laws designed to keep us safe,&nbsp;which inadvertently chill media freedoms and that essential reporting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Minister has moved to reassure the media sector that journalism critical of the UK government which might \u201cincidentally be capable of assisting a foreign intelligence service\u201d will not be deemed a criminal offence under the new national security regime. Speaking on behalf of the government in a House of Lords debate on the Bill, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":12322,"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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-security-bill","category-news","national-security-bill","news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Government Moves To Reassure Media Sector Over 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\/2023\/03\/02\/government-moves-to-reassure-media-sector-over-national-security-bill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Government Moves To Reassure Media Sector Over National Security Bill - News Media Association\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Minister has moved to reassure the media sector that journalism critical of the UK government which might \u201cincidentally be capable of assisting a foreign intelligence service\u201d will not be deemed a criminal offence under the new national security regime. 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