New curbs on the Press would help law-breakers avoid being exposed

CRIMINALS and corrupt politicians and businessmen could escape exposure under a new attempt to restrict Press freedom.

The fresh bid to restrict the rights of journalists and the media to inquire into crime and corruption involves attempts to change a data law that is going through Parliament.

One Labour amendment to the Data Protection Bill would mean that the Information Commissioner would have powers to decide whether codes of conduct under which journalists work should be recognised by the new law.

The Bill is aimed at producing an up-todate data protection regime, which strengthens rights and gives individuals more control over their personal informa- tion. Organisations that did not safeguard sensitive data would risk heavy fines.

But importantly, the legislation provides an exemption for journalists who access and store personal information without consent when exposing wrongdoing.

This means that individuals under investigation by journalists would not be able to interfere with their inquiries or block publication of stories that would bring to light wrongdoing.

A series of attempts have been made to introduce changes to the Bill which would remove safeguards for freedom of expression, bind journalists and make their inquiries either difficult or impossible. The new Labour amendment would award powers to the Information Commissioner to decide that a code of conduct followed by journalists was inadequate to allow any journalist exemption from strict data protection rules.

It would mean that the Information Commissioner could rule against the code operated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation – the regulator free of state control to which the great majority of newspapers belong – or that of Ofcom, which governs the behaviour of BBC and other broadcast journalists.

If this happened it would threaten the ability of most journalists to write or broadcast about criminals or the corrupt.

A second amendment would rewrite the new law so that a second half of the Leveson inquiry into Press standards would go ahead.

Last month the News Media Association criticised amendments to the Bill to try to restrict the freedoms of journalists, saying these ‘ would give powerful claimants with something to hide fresh ammunition to pursue legal claims and shut down legitimate public interest investigation into their activities’.