Tom Griffin (London, OK): Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre comes up with a fairly full list of threats to the freedom of the press in a Guardian article today, but not an exhaustive one as it turns out. The Independent has another item to add to the tally:
The Intelligence and Security Committee, the parliamentary watchdog of the intelligence and security agencies which has a cross-party membership from both Houses, wants to press ministers to introduce legislation that would prevent news outlets from reporting stories deemed by the Government to be against the interests of national security.
The Committee's concerns centre on one incident in particular:
an Islamist plot to kidnap and murder a British serviceman in 2007, during which reporters were tipped off about the imminent arrest of suspects in Birmingham, a security operation known as "Gamble". The staff in the office of the then home secretary, John Reid, and the local police were among those accused of being responsible – charges they denied. An investigation by Scotland Yard failed to find the source of the leak.
It will be far simpler apparently, for the state to censor the press than to enforce some discipline amongst its own functionaries.
Update: David Davis takes up the cudges at Index on Censorship:
Calls for unprecedented and legally binding powers to ban the media from reporting matters of national security, reported on the front page of the Independent, would be incredible had they come from a government minister in this heavy-handed anti-liberal government. Being cited as coming from the Intelligence and Security Committee, a committee that consists entirely of members of the Houses of Parliament, they are virtually unbelievable.
