{"id":411,"date":"2007-04-30T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-30T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/?p=411"},"modified":"2007-04-30T06:30:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-30T12:30:00","slug":"will-security-journalism-show-its-teeth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/2007\/04\/will-security-journalism-show-its-teeth\/","title":{"rendered":"Will security journalism show its teeth?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"dropcaps\">H<\/span>ow hard will security correspondents push <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">MI5 <\/span>on the <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/1\/hi\/uk\/6417353.stm\" target=\"_blank\">issues<\/a> highlighted by the <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/1\/hi\/uk\/6195914.stm\" target=\"_blank\">Fertiliser<\/a> trial? The <span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Sun<\/span><\/span> puts the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/article\/0,,2-2007200022,00.html\" target=\"_blank\">case for the prosecution<\/a>. The <span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Telegraph<\/span><\/span>&#8216;s Home Affairs editor, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Philip Johnston<\/span> (whose <a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/opinion\/main.jhtml?xml=\/opinion\/2006\/06\/19\/do1902.xml&#038;sSheet=\/opinion\/2006\/06\/19\/ixopinion.html\">personal advocacy<\/a> on behalf of the security services is a matter of record) has the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/main.jhtml?xml=\/news\/2007\/04\/30\/nfertiliser530.xml\" target=\"_blank\">case for the defence<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>So will this be a useful test of whether or not the security journalists&#8217; role really allows them to call the security services to account? Or will it simply be another opportunity to repeat in public what&#8217;s told to them in private?<\/p>\n<p>To me at least, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mi5.gov.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">scrutiny<\/a> given to Britain&#8217;s intelligence services seems woefully inadequate. MI5&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mi5.gov.uk\/output\/Page2.html\" target=\"_blank\">website<\/a> doesn&#8217;t even carry press statements. [<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Update!<\/span> A little later <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mi5.gov.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">all this<\/a> appeared.] They are dealt with by the <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" href=\"http:\/\/press.homeoffice.gov.uk\/\">Home Office<\/a>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/bp2.blogger.com\/_7FX8PyQEiZw\/RjZlTd0dp8I\/AAAAAAAAACM\/4yvkqKThGBM\/s1600-h\/What%27s+New+on+the+MI5+website+-+April+2007.jpeg\"><\/a><br \/>Reporters need some public benchmark on which to report (a select committee with investigatory powers perhaps?), not just their personal belief that sources wouldn&#8217;t lie to them.  Still, sit back and see if things are different this time around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How hard will security correspondents push MI5 on the issues highlighted by the Fertiliser trial? The Sun puts the case for the prosecution. The Telegraph&#8216;s Home Affairs editor, Philip Johnston (whose personal advocacy on behalf of the security services is a matter of record) has the case for the defence. So will this be a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,50],"tags":[412,143],"class_list":["post-411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journalism","category-journalists","tag-telegraph","tag-sun"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}