The supposed party of free speech and accountability to the masses are once again showing their true colours.
Councillor Mick Barton, leader of Reform’s Nottinghamshire County Council, has told local media outlet Nottinghamshire Live that neither he or his fellow councillors will ever deign to speak to or answer questions from their journalists again. Or any of those from the essential Local Democracy Reporting Service which means national institutions like the BBC will be similarly hampered.
Nottinghamshire Live has been put on notice that Reform UK’s Nottinghamshire county councillors will refuse to speak to any of our journalists from here on in. The ban, which will only be lifted for emergency scenarios like flooding or incidents at council-run schools, applies both to our journalists and to the team of reporters we now manage under the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).
He’s told his officers to stop sending them press releases, that neither he or his 41 Reform colleagues will take interviews, and that they will not be invited to any county council events.
The ban also applying to LDRS reporters means it will affect other outlets too:
The fact that the policy also applies to our LDR reporters means this policy will not just affect coverage for Nottinghamshire Live readers. The BBC-funded scheme is an essential service which sees all local media outlets in an area being able to run reports from the LDR journalists covering council meetings and council business.
Why? Seemingly simply because they published an article with what seems like a relatively minor criticism which Councillor Barton didn’t like – even though Reform couldn’t be bothered take up the chance to respond to the claims made that they were offered in advance:
It was my recent article on the ongoing discussions about local government reorganisation (LGR). The article included a claim that two Reform UK councillors said at a public surgery that they could be suspended from their county council group if they did not vote for Councillor Barton’s preference of a bigger Nottingham council covering Broxtowe and Gedling.
The article repeatedly referred to the fact that this was merely a claim and noted who that claim had come from. We also went to both Councillor Barton and the two Reform UK councillors concerned ahead of publication and explicitly told them about the claim.
Councillor Barton did not wish to comment on the claim directly, whilst the two Reform councillors who allegedly made it both sent identical messages which did not explicitly deny the claim.
Reform MP Lee Anderson also has previous form in running down Nottinghamshire Live on the basis he thinks it runs pieces that are too “negative” about Reform.
Said Anderson at the time, as conspiracy minded and dishonest as ever:
We will take our country back and these lefty out of touch low level so called journalists will have to go and get a proper job.
Quite an incredible statement from a supposed public servant. It’s very clear that Anderson and his ilk would happily see any news institution that isn’t entirely in thrall with his political party – i.e. any news institution that is actually doing its job – closed down. This is a typical tactic of a wannabe autocratic regime.
They’re rightly scared that every time their incompetence and cruelty is revealed there is a risk that their popularity will decrease. The truth hurts them. And so enforced fealty and censorship is the order of the day.
Nottinghamshire Live give a full run-down of what went on regarding this and several other incidents they’ve experienced that would suggest Reform are rather more anti-press, anti-accountability and pro-censorship that one would expect of any political party, let alone one that pretends to value freedom, transparency and accountability.
As the journalist Oliver Pridmore noted in the first article I read about this:
It is truly baffling that Reform UK, the party that supposedly champions free speech, is allowing one of its new council leaders to block access to one of the biggest news outlets in his area over a fair and balanced piece of local journalism.
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There is something fundamentally unhealthy about elected, taxpayer-funded politicians deciding to take that path though. Nottinghamshire County Council is an authority with a budget of over £1 billion, covering a population of 800,000 people by delivering vital services ranging from schools to social care.
The idea that a historic and regulated news outlet will no longer be able to scrutinise the essential work above is incredibly chilling. I have written an incalculable number of pieces in this job that council leaders did not like.
Sometimes they have complained to me personally, sometimes they have decided to challenge our coverage publicly, but I have never experienced a council leader refusing to speak to us unless there is some sort of disaster. It is a ridiculous situation that rendered me speechless when I first heard of it.
The Society of Editors is equally as shocked – at the end of the days, politicians need to be held to account.
Reform UK’s decision to shut out Nottinghamshire Live and its Local Democracy reporters is profoundly wrong. Political parties must welcome scrutiny, not silence it. When councillors refuse to answer questions or provide information, they’re not just shutting out the press — they’re shutting out the public they serve.
Other local politicians are similarly as appalled about Reform’s outrageous decision:
MP Kevin Hollinrake, Conservative Party chairman, said it was a “disgrace for Reform to deliberately cut off local journalism”.
He added: “They are completely denying communities the right to scrutinise those in power.
“If Reform can’t even face questions from the Nottingham Post, what hope is there that they could ever face the serious responsibilities of government?”
The leader of the opposition on Nottinghamshire County Council, Conservative Sam Smith, called the ban an “extremely dangerous step”.
He added: “It’s not just the press Reform are shutting out in Nottinghamshire. It’s the voice and views of residents.”
Labour MP for Mansfield Steve Yemm added: “Shutting the door on local journalists doesn’t just block criticism, it cuts off residents from the facts. Whether you agree with every headline or not, local media keeps the public informed and those in power honest.”
Over 40,000 members of the public, at the time of writing, have signed a petition demanding the ban be reversed.
Nigel Farage says he welcomes freedom of speech, even if people find it offensive. Surely that should apply to freedom of the press too? So why have Reform’s Nottinghamshire councillors – who control the county council – been banned from talking to the Nottingham Post & Nottinghamshire Live, just because we wrote an article they didn’t like?
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When councillors pick and choose which journalists get to talk to them, they can control the story and hide the truth.
Nonetheless, this kind of ban might already be spreading beyond Nottinghamshire’s Reform.
The New Statesman reports that:
In Croydon, south London, the head of the local Reform branch announced he would no longer engage with Inside Croydon journalists after they revealed the party was running a dead candidate for mayor.
Which is a hilarious sentence, but a very worrying policy choice.
The party also banned several journalists from attending its annual Conference:
The Observer’s Carole Cadwalladr and Josiah Mortimer of Byline Times were barred from the populist Reform party’s conference…Adam Barnett and Simon Childs of Novara Media were blocked by both the Conservatives and Reform
And Nation.Cymru, a news outlet in Wales, is now concerned that they have been quietly subjected to the same kind of ban as Nottinghamshire Live was.
As the news editor of Nation.Cymru, I was blocked completely from speaking with Reform Wales’ former spokesperson and now Caerphilly candidate Llŷr Powell.
Powell had taken umbrage with my attempts to report on his controversial previous employment with Scouts Cymru.
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During Powell’s time as Wales’ head of communications, we did not receive press releases or invites to some of the party’s key Welsh announcements such as Laura Anne Jones’ defection to Reform from the Conservatives.
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One senior Reform figure told me he would “never” speak to a prominent BBC Wales reporter again following an entirely legitimate story the public service broadcaster had run about him.
The same Reform figure sent me a message saying he was “happy” to work with me – but only if I didn’t ever report on the same story.
The party’s supposed strong support for free speech appears to only apply if a journalist doesn’t report on something they would rather the public didn’t know.
Labour point out the obvious hypocrisy:
Farage is happy to fly thousands of miles to lecture others on free speech, yet doesn’t appear to care about his Reform foot soldiers refusing to speak to local journalists. Free speech when it suits is no free speech at all. He’s a total hypocrite.
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Farage’s councillors are clearly unable to defend their record. If they want to hold public office, they must accept the responsibility that comes with it – including answering to the people they serve.
Not surprising Farage wants to denigrate Britain further by cutting us out of the international laws that guarantee a free press, such as the European Convention of Human Rights. About article 10 of the ECHR:
Everyone has the right to freedom of expression and to receive and impart information. This right also covers the freedom of the press. Freedom of expression is one of the essential foundations of a democratic society. The media require particular protection because they play a key role in defending freedom of expression. Article 10 protects, among others, the right to criticise, to make assumptions or value judgments and the right to have opinions.
It’s one of many human rights he wants to throw away in order to strip us citizens of our rights, all in the name of making him and his billionaire funders richer and more powerful.
He wants a censored press that expresses only abject sycophancy, worshiping the one-man-band that is Reform. Whereas the actual obligation of the press is to report honest and accurate news – including on the injustice, corruption and incompetence of his political party on the many occasions when it occurs.