Nigel Farage is under pressure to help reverse a ‘dangerous and chilling’ decision to ban some local journalists from engaging with Reform UK in Nottingham
Nigel Farage is under pressure to help reverse a “dangerous and chilling” decision to ban some local journalists from engaging with Reform UK.
In a Donald Trump-esque move, Reform’s council leader at Nottingham County Council (NCC) has banned some local reporters from receiving the party’s press notices and interviewing him or the 40 elected Reform councillors in the area. It has triggered accusations of hypocrisy as Reform UK claim to care about free speech and are now clamping down on some media outlets.
Mr Farage, Reform UK’s leader, has been asked to intervene and urge council leader Mick Barton to reverse his ruling against Nottinghamshire Live/Nottingham Post and journalists at the local democracy reporting service.
Union leaders reacted furiously to the ban and accused Reform UK’s local leaders of trying to “bully and coerce” the Nottingham Post and its reporters. One MP said the decision “sets a chilling precedent” for what the relationship between politicians and the press could look like if Mr Farage was elected to No10.
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The ban will be lifted for emergency scenarios like flooding. The restrictions were put in place after Nottinghamshire Live wrote a story about plans for a restructuring of local government.
Loudmouth Reform UK MP Lee Anderson also said he’d boycott Nottinghamshire Live. “There are some media outlets I will engage with but not you lot,” he wrote on Facebook.
Liberal Democrat Culture, Media and Sport spokesman Max Wilkinson has written to Mr Farage to ask him to take action. He warned the Reform UK leader that the exclusion of media outlets risks contravening local government’s code of conduct, which calls on elected officials to “submit themselves to the scrutiny necessary to ensure … accountability”, and prohibits information being withheld from the public “unless there are clear and lawful reasons for doing so”.
He added: “Reform’s move to block local journalists from reporting on their work is straight out of Donald Trump’s playbook. It’s a cornerstone of our democracy that politicians of all stripes are held to account — but for some reason Farage’s cronies think they can make themselves exempt.
“This move sets a dangerous and chilling precedent for if Reform were to win power nationally and goes against our deeply rooted British values of freedom of the press. We must stand up to Reform’s assault on those principles.
“Nigel Farage pretends to champion free speech: I’m calling on him to take some responsibility for once in his political career and demand that Nottinghamshire County Council Leader Mick Barton reverses this decision.”
In response to the Lib Dems’ demands, a Reform UK spokesman: “Like most political parties these days, the only way the Liberal Democrats can get any media coverage is by attacking Reform UK.”
Natalie Fahy, the editor of the Nottingham Post and Nottinghamshire Live, described the situation as a “massive attack on local democracy” and raised concerns about Reform UK’s relationship with the media if Mr Farage wins the next general election.
“It’s a massive attack on local democracy,” she told the Guardian. “I’ve been a journalist for 20 years. We have had our ups and downs with all kinds of councils. We managed to get along fine, because most elected officials accept this is par for the course. You are going to get some negative press. What you don’t do is shut the shop up.
“This is a worrying sign of potentially things to come if Reform wins the next election. What you’re seeing here in Nottinghamshire is probably a microcosm of how it will be across the whole of the UK if Nigel Farage becomes prime minister. You are just going to see this kind of shutting down of questioning.
“They need to be answerable to the people who elected them. We don’t take a political stance. We’re not anti-Reform. We’re just trying to find out what’s going on.”
Jo White, the Labour MP for Bassetlaw, said Reform UK is “scared of scrutiny by the media”. She added: “I strongly believe it’s a shutdown of democracy because the role of the press is to hold politicians to account.
“By not speaking to journalists about new policies, new ideas, new proposals, it means that we have a local authority operating in the dark, and people are not being kept up to date with the direction that the county council have taken. They’re elected to take on the responsibilities, but during that process, they have to be held to account, and and they are denying that opportunity.”
Nadia Whittome, the Labour MP for Nottingham East, said the decision “sets a chilling precedent”, adding: “Local media scrutiny of elected representatives is a vital part of our democracy, but Reform councillors in Nottinghamshire have thrown their toys out of the pram because they can’t stand being held to account for their failings.
“This move sets a chilling precedent and is a window into the real danger a far-right Reform government poses to our democracy. The party claims to be in favour of free speech but is yet again showing its true, authoritarian colours.”
Chris Morley, the national union of journalists’ Northern & Midlands senior organiser, said: “This is a really worrying development. It’s a key part of a local newspaper’s role to hold decision makers to account. If reporters are barred from interviewing key councillors about those decisions, it risks creating a vacuum of democracy. We hope that Reform rethink this very sudden and rash decision, and continue to engage with all parts of the local media.”
And the NUJ’s Nottingham branch said Reform UK had acted “in a way that is somehow both aggressive and cowardly” towards reporters. It said: “The local party leadership is trying to bully and coerce the Post and its reporters, and dictate terms, while at the same time hiding from democratic scrutiny over the way it is running Nottinghamshire County Council.
“This move by Reform, which claims to support freedom of speech, is part of a sinister, growing wider trend of politicians and activist groups attacking journalists simply for doing their jobs. A trend of public figures bullying and pressuring journalists into reporting the ‘truth’ as they wish it to be presented, while deeply resenting any scrutiny and questioning in return.”
The Reform group at NCC said: “The Reform group at Nottinghamshire County Council has banned proactive engagement with journalists from Nottinghamshire Live and the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).
“The ban, which will only be lifted for emergency scenarios like flooding and weather-related cases, incidents at council-run schools, adult social care, or public safety issues, has come into immediate effect.
“The council will stop sending press releases to Nottinghamshire Live and the LDRS reporters with the policy covering the Leader Councillor Mick Barton and the 40 elected Reform councillors. Councillor Barton and his colleagues will not be giving interviews to the two outlets or inviting them to Council events, but reporters from Nottinghamshire Live and LDRS will continue to attend public meetings.”
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