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It’s been a worrying few days for UK press freedom. On Thursday, photojournalist @andyaitchison was arrested for photographing a protest against poor conditions in Napier Barracks, a military camp in Kent housing hundreds of asylum seekers. 1/ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/journalist-photographer-asylum-camp-napier-barracks-andy-aitchison-b1794907.html
On Friday, government equalities minister @KemiBadenoch triggered a flood of abuse & threats against @HuffPostUK reporter @Nadine_Writes by smearing her (in an 8-part Twitter thread) simply for doing her job by asking a question in the public interest. 2/ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/uk-minister-kemi-badenoch-twitter-journalist-attack_n_60144f1ec5b6aa4bad33d07f
This comes just a week after government minister @nadhimzahawi and other Tory MPs attacked @yorkshirepost and @RobynVinter for their accurate public interest reporting on Covid jabs being diverted to other regions. 3/ https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/opinion/vaccines-national-effort-national-interest-letter-editor-3109891
These are only the latest developments in a worrying trend that @RSF_inter highlighted last year, of increasingly aggressive behaviour by UK government officials & departments in an attempt to discredit reporting that doesn’t toe the official line. 4/ https://rsf.org/en/news/uk-press-freedom-under-threat-lockdown-government-dismisses-reporting-campaigning-newspapers
Much of this is in backlash to critical reporting on the government’s Covid response. These stories are clearly in the public interest, and impact public health. Attempting to undermine or silence such reporting violates the rights to freedom of expression and information. 5/
This comes against a worrying backdrop of longer term issues such as the detention of Julian Assange, a clampdown on freedom of information & threats to the safety of journalists in Northern Ireland, which continue to mar the UK’s press freedom record. /6 https://rsf.org/en/news/rsf-index-2020-uk-ranking-declines-following-murder-journalist-lyra-mckee
