Saturday
(0)A letter to The Independent:
Sir: In the article "Terror suspects describe alleged torture 'in front of MI6 agents' " (4 January) Elinda Labropoulou claimed "The British Government has issued a gagging order to prevent the publication of the alleged British agent's name". It has not.The advice given to editors on this issue was not offered by the Government, but by me on behalf of the Defence Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee. The five standing Defence Advisory Notices on the publication and broadcasting of national security information agreed by this independent Committee (see www.dnotice.org.uk) constitute a purely voluntary code, one without any form of legal sanction. Any suggestion that the media has been "gagged" on this issue is plain wrong.
ANDREW VALLANCE
AIR VICE-MARSHAL, SECRETARY, DEFENCE PRESS AND BROADCASTING ADVISORY COMMITTEE, LONDON SW1
Which rather begs some questions. If the D-notice DPBAC has no legal sanction, what extra-legal sanctions are available to it? Is there an implicit distinction here between "the Government" and government? I'm sure you can think of others.
One has to ask why the www.dnotice.org.uk website referred to in this letter was offline for over a week eaxctlly during the period whilst the Greek MI6 allegations and the Uzbekistan torture memos stories developed, and innacuarate references to "D Notices" were being bandied about in the press and the blogosphere. The DA Notice system replaced the former D Notice system back in 1993.
The "government" members of this "voiluntary" committee include the top Civil Servants in charge of the secret state
Bill Jeffrey CB
Permanent Under Secretary of State
Ministry of Defence
I C F Andrews Esq. CBE TD
2nd Permanent Under Secretary of State
Ministry of Defence
David Richmond Esq.
DG Defence & Intelligence
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
Sir John Gieve KCB
Permanent Under Secretary of State Home Office
Sir Richard Mottram KCB (now Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in the latest New Year's Honours list)
Permanent Secretary and Security Intelligence Co-ordinator
Cabinet Office
These are powerfuul people to offend, and the sources of a large number of "exclusive" stories and and briefings for the news and media organisations.
Posted by Watching Them, Watching Us at January 7, 2006 11:37 AM
The most effective censorship isn't that imposed by the regime, it's self-imposed censorship nurtured in a PC culture using nods, winks, patronage, arm twisting and knighthoods.
How was it possible, for instance, that a drunk was allowed to stand for the premiership last May. A drunk whose status was known to all politicians and all of the media. No laws would have been broken if the truth had been published, and yet no one thought to do so. Self-censorship at its best?
Posted by John East at January 7, 2006 11:50 AM
One has to ask why the www.dnotice.org.uk website referred to in this letter was offline for over a week eaxctlly during the period whilst the Greek MI6 allegations and the Uzbekistan torture memos stories developed,
I really don't think its an evil plot by sinister ICANN representatives to block off the British government's DNotice site and I am pretty sure Sir Richard Mottram isn't sitting in the COBRA briefing room cackling "welcome to my evil lair" at newspaper editors. I thought that the MoD didn't use Defence Notices any longer anyway, preferring instead to have an informal word with the editors of newspapers and suggesting that publication might not be in their best interest? Certainly that was the policy during the Conservative Party's tenure of government.
Posted by Julian Taylor at January 7, 2006 01:03 PM
I wonder what the equivalent of a D Notice / Press and Broadcasting Advisory Notice are called when applied to suppression of "interesting" public health issues, e.g. human/human transmission of H5N1?
Posted by John Stenson at January 16, 2006 08:22 PM
