From a lengthy BBC interview with Boris Johnson planned for next month, to journalists being blocked from the Labour conference, there's been plenty to chew over in media news this week.
Labour conference media access
It’s the Labour Party conference this week in Liverpool and before it got going, we reported how an investigative news outlet was barred from attending the event.
Declassified UK reporter John McEvoy – who has recently reported on Labour’s rich donors – applied for a press pass for the event in Liverpool last month but said he was later rejected.
“Media passes are for accredited journalists and photographers with a relevant portfolio only,” a Labour official reportedly said in response.
“We reserve the right to reject an application if we cannot find any evidence the applicant is a working journalist or photographer with a political portfolio or working on behalf of a relevant media outlet.”
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The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) assisted with the journalist’s appeal but he was unsuccessful, leading to condemnation from the NUJ and Reporters without Borders.
Fiona O’Brien, UK director of Reporters without Borders, said it was “alarming” to hear a reporter had been denied access to the conference.
She said: “If the new government is really committed to open democracy, it needs to guarantee fair and free access to the political process for a wide range of media, not just for the mainstream.”
David Ayrton, a senior organiser at the NUJ, added: “It is important to uphold press freedom and therefore it is an imperative that bona fide news gatherers and journalists, such as John McEvoy, are not excluded from events such as the Labour party conference.”
Our reporter James Walker has also faced some issues getting into certain speeches at the event. He was initially denied entry into Anas Sarwar’s speech due to having the wrong coloured pass, but was eventually allowed in after pressing the issue.
Boris on the BBC
BORIS Johnson, thankfully, no longer graces the seats of the House of Commons but he still seems to be of huge interest to the BBC.
The broadcaster has been called out over arranging an exclusive interview with the disgraced former prime minister, which conveniently seems to line up well with the release of his new book entitled Unleashed.
His book professes to help readers “discover the unfiltered truths about Brexit, Covid and the Conservative Party” and comes out on October 10, with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg set to interview him one week before the release in a 30-minute prime time slot.
Johnson resigned his seat in 2023 having been found guilty of deliberately lying to parliament.
Kuenssberg has not quite got the reaction she would have wanted.
In response her show’s Twitter account posting “one for the diary”, some quipped that they had added events such as “literally anything else” or “don’t watch BBC One” to their diaries.
The National contributor Gerry Hassan wrote: “One of the BBC's most senior political journalists: Laura Kuenssberg seemingly happy to engage in profiling former UK PM Boris Johnson with the sole aim of helping him flog more copies of his book.
“Questionable political judgment by the BBC again.”
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Former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell added: “Read the replies. Smell the coffee @bbclaurak – be far better if he was in a court of law facing charges of corruption and misconduct in public office. Repeat offender.”
Scottish organisation ditches Twitter
It’s something we’re seeing happen on a regular basis now, organisations choosing to step away from Twitter because of concerns over disinformation spreading.
Last year LGBT Youth Scotland took the decision to leave the platform citing a “troubling increase in extreme views and targeted attacks” towards the community.
This week, The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland announced it would be stepping back from Twitter/X as a result of “misinformation” and “harmful content”.
A statement said: “We recognise that misinformation is not caused by one platform alone and is a far bigger societal problem, however, we believe that the level of mis and dis-information that has been seen on the Twitter/X platform and an algorithm that appears to promote hateful content are increasingly incompatible with our ethical principles.”
The organisation did confirm, however, it would continue to check for notifications and review its decision to step back in a “few months”.
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