Counter Terrorism Journalistic Safeguards Approved by House of Lords
The new measures will mean strengthened safeguards for confidential material, which could disclose journalistic sources, and make it clearer that such materials should not be accessed by front-line officers without prior judicial authorisation.
The House of Lords approved the motion on 10 July to approve Codes under counter-terrorism legislation that include important additional safeguards for journalists, including improved protection for confidential journalistic material and journalistic sources. The Home Office had agreed to make significant changes to the draft codes to improve journalistic safeguards after considering detailed representations from the NMA.
The NMA had successfully lobbied for journalistic protections during the passage of the Acts and the Home Office agreed to make significant changes to the draft codes to improve journalistic safeguards after considering detailed representations from the NMA.
The NMA has also written to the College of Policing and National Police Chiefs Council to request consultation on the operational guidance and training for officers. The codes will come into operation after officers have been trained and accredited.
Home Office Minister Baroness Williams said: “I can say that, after consideration of feedback received from groups representing the media, we believe that we have identified a constructive solution to address these practical concerns while preserving the confidentiality of genuine material.
“We have amended the codes to make it explicitly clear that front-line officers must not retain, copy or examine material that is believed to be protected. However, we have also allowed for the temporary retention of property containing protected material, or copies of that property, but only where a process can be undertaken to identify and separate this from examinable material.
“The process is subject to strict requirements to minimise the risk that protected material is seen by the examining officer, or any other officer involved in the examination. For example, as I said in answer to the noble Lord, Lord Harris of Haringey, independent counsel must be engaged for the purpose of identifying which items of material the officers are authorised to examine.
“Any protected material must then be returned to the property owner and copies destroyed. This process has been modelled on the Serious Fraud Office operational procedure upheld by the High Court. In addition, we have extended the safeguards for protected material, under either power, to include material which could disclose a source of journalistic information.”
The Codes are to be approved by the House of Commons under the Port Examination Codes of Practice and National Security Determinations Guidance Regulations (2020), when carrying out functions under the Counter Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019 (Schedule 3) and Terrorism Act 2000 (Schedules 7 and 8).