Outrageous censorship that Boris should be ashamed of
On Monday afternoon, journalists at no 10 who were expecting a briefing on EU trade were asked to line up on one side of the entrance hall while a security officer checked them off against a list.
Those acceptable to the powers-thatbe were asked to cross over to the other side of the room. The remaining journalists – mostly, though not entirely, from organisations disliked by no 10 – were told to leave.
In the event, everyone present walked out in protest at what was considered an almost unprecedented act of censorship on the part of Downing Street.
nine times out of ten, when journalists grumble about the way they are treated by the authorities, I am inclined to shrug my shoulders, and not take their complaints too seriously.
But what happened two days ago is a very serious matter. It is part of a misguided attempt, largely orchestrated by the Prime Minister’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings, to seize control of the news agenda in a way reminiscent of Donald Trump.
This seemingly involves excluding news organisations believed to be antagonistic to the Government, or at any rate trying to disadvantage them in some way.
Last week, several supposedly unsympathetic journalists were kept out of a briefing by officials about the controversial involvement of the Chinese company Huawei in Britain’s 5G network.
Such behaviour, in common with what happened on Monday, defies established procedure. All governments have their favourite news outlets, and confide in them selectively. But excluding journalists from technical briefings is an alarming development.
What are Mr Cummings and Lee Cain, the PM’s director of communications, up to? And does Boris Johnson, who has spent most of his adult life as a journalist, approve of what they are doing?
To answer those questions we have first to peer into the tumultuous mind of Mr Cummings, who evidently believes in Maoist permanent revolution.
Mr Cummings is a natural hater. He loathes the Left-wing media, and in particular the BBC.
As it happens, I share many of his criticisms of the Corporation. There is a Left-wing default position to much of its coverage. An egregious recent example were ‘anti-British’ Brexit-day sketches for children on CBBC, its children’s channel.
Horrible Histories, hosted by nish Kumar, a Left-wing and fanatically anti-Brexit so- called comedian, included a sketch that suggested Britain had produced little throughout its history and relied on imports. I’ve no doubt Mr Cummings shares the reasonable view of many Tories that the BBC sometimes treated Mr Johnson during the election campaign as though he was little better than a common criminal.
So it’s payback time. The Government is refusing to put up ministers on Today, Radio Four’s influential news programme. It is also boycotting ITV’s Good Morning Britain, likewise regarded as unfriendly.
AKEy to what is happening is Mr Cummings’s grasp of the power of social media, which he used to such good effect during the 2016 referendum campaign, when he was director of Vote Leave.
He believes that what he calls the ‘People’s Government’ should communicate directly with voters without what he sees as the antiTory media (of which the BBC is in his mind the most powerful constituent) corrupting the message.
So it was that, when the Prime Minister delivered his Brexit homily last Friday, it was filmed in no 10, and released via Facebook, without Auntie or any other broadcaster playing any part in it.
This annoyed the BBC, which refused to use footage produced by no 10. So – rather pettily, I think – it would only agree to play the message with an actor doing Mr Johnson’s voice.
In short, we have a war between Mr Cummings and the Beeb, in which the excitable no 10 adviser – like Chairman Mao, always in search of an enemy – is now embroiling other Leftwardlyinclined media organisations such as Channel Four and the Daily Mirror.
How should those of us who do not always approve of the BBC’s political coverage respond? Pretty critically, I believe. Because the main victims of this guerrilla warfare are ordinary voters.
needless to say, there is an argument to be had about the future of the Corporation and its funding. yesterday, Baroness Morgan, the culture secretary, launched a public consultation about decriminalising non- payment of the licence fee.
Such a move would inevitably deprive the Beeb of an unknowable, and possibly large, slice of its income. The rights and wrongs of this idea are an argument for another day.
What concerns me now is that the Government’s boycott of Auntie is a disservice to the public.
WHERE were ministers yesterday providing reassurance and elucidation about the authorities’ ability to keep former terrorists from killing as soon as they are released from prison? Almost nowhere, is the answer.
Instead of putting itself under proper media scrutiny, no 10 is feuding with our main national service broadcaster – and now opening up another front against media organisations.
All this comes from President Trump’s playbook. In his case, he rails against newspapers such as the Washington Post and the new york Times while putting himself and members of his administration at the disposal of supportive channels such as Fox news.
That is not how we do things in Britain. We have a tradition here, though Mr Cummings and Mr
Cain may not like it, of allowing a range of voices in the media, some of which are bound to be critical of the government of the day.
I never thought I would live to see a Tory administration blackballing journalists and publications it dislikes.
What makes it odder still is that this Government has a stonking majority. It has routed its adversaries and won the argument over Brexit. And its charismatic leader has spoken generously of healing the nation’s wounds.
Having been a journalist for more than 30 years, Boris surely can’t approve of silencing potentially critical media outlets – a sanction bound to enhance enmity rather than foster harmony.
And as PM he should be prepared to submit himself to scrutiny and interrogation by the BBC and other organisations rather than being beamed without any journalistic mediation on to our computer screens and smartphones.
This isn’t Trump’s America. I hope our journalist Prime Minister will control the perpetually turbulent Mr Cummings, who seems not to like journalists or journalism very much, or to value a free Press.