In recent years, some of the biggest scoops in investigative journalism have come about because someone inside government or the intelligence services has leaked sensitive information. There was Edward Snowden revealing the scale of mass surveillance being carried out by western governments, and more recently, leaks exposing who was getting lucrative state Covid contracts.
Now, though, investigative journalists in the UK are looking worriedly at a consultation from the Home Office related to plans it has to update the Official Secrets Act. This law, created in 1911 and last updated in 1989, makes it a criminal offence for government officials to reveal certain kinds of classified information – and for journalists to publish it. The Home Office is suggesting expanding the scope of what information should be covered by the act and extending the punishments for breaking it.
Paul Lashmar, the head of the department of journalism at City, University of London, tells Rachel Humphreys that the proposed changes could have a chilling effect on journalism. Meanwhile Nigel Inkster, a former director of operations in the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), describes the secrecy legislation as a constant balancing act between privacy, freedom of speech and security.
Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA
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