Britain's security agencies and police would be given unprecedented and legally binding powers to ban the media from reporting matters of national
security, under proposals being discussed in Whitehall.
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.
Under the existing voluntary code of conduct, known as the DA-Notice system, the Government can request that the media does not report a story.
However, the committee's members are particularly worried about leaks, which, they believe, could derail investigations and the reporting of which
needs to be banned by legislation.
The committee has focused on one particular case to highlight its concern: 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.
The human rights lawyer Louise Christian said: "This would be a very dangerous development. We need media scrutiny for public accountability. We can
see this from the example, for instance, of the PhD student in Nottingham who was banged up for six days without charge because he downloaded
something from the internet for his thesis. The only reason this came to light was because of the media attention to the case."
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