Been mulling over how to respond to this - an MP writing a piece attacking one of our reporters for doing her job, 2 weeks after a minister smeared her in a twitter thread - and considered ignoring it. I've no wish to engage in their culture war. But I need to stand up for Nadine https://twitter.com/NeilDotObrien/status/1359500303838703618

The entire thrust of this argument is that a reporter who does vital work around race in the UK should not be focusing on the minister for equalities and asking questions of what she does, & that we as a site should not be holding that minister and the govt to account constantly

By that measure, any reporter who's ever had a beat is presumably somehow "targeting" or "accusing" the minister with that brief by virtue of fact they write about them or send them questions about their conduct. This is either staggeringly naive or frankly an absurd non-argument

It's also deeply alarming for anyone in the journalism industry, and anyone who cares about the role of a free press in this country. But this is about more than badly argued reasoning - it's about power. Who has it, why and how it's given to them, and how they wield it

In my professional life I've always try to hold to principle that we use our journalistic platform to punch up, not down. To question a govt minister is to ask questions of people in power, who set policies and the tone of govt. That's the purpose of journalism, it's what we do