Journalistic scrutiny of the UK police (and the armed forces and intelligence services, btw) is about to be severely restricted thanks to the Counter-Terrorism Bill.
Here’s what the Bill says:
83 Offences relating to information about members of armed forces etc
(1) After section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000 (c. 11) (collection of information)insert—
“58A Eliciting, publishing or communicating information about members of armed forces etc(1) A person commits an offence who—
(a) elicits or attempts to elicit information about an individual who is or has been—
(i) a member of Her Majesty’s forces,
(ii) a member of any of the intelligence services, or
(iii) a constable,which is of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, or
(b) publishes or communicates any such information.
(2) It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under this section to prove that they had a reasonable excuse for their action.
The ‘reasonable excuse’ defence sounds ‘reasonable’, but in the early stages of any investigation such excuse is often hard to justify – you’re asking for the evidence up front that the investigation might provide.
Easy to see how this becomes one giant stick with which to beat anyone doing accountability journalism in respect of the constabulary.
One response to “Protecting the police from inquiries”
Interesting to see the words “which is of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism” included in the Bill. I suspect that the police and armed forces will interpret that in the widest possible way. So a Chief Constable accused of being on the take or having an affair is unlikely, in most people’s minds, to aid terrorism but I’m sure they’ll find a way of arguing that it does.
Is Osama Bin Laden more likely to attack the UK because he’s read a story in the papers telling how a senior police or armed forces officer was driving under the influence?
The true terrorists are those in the UK who use the law to undermine free speech and questioning journalism.