Reporters have been slammed with a new law that explains how they could potentially face up to 14 years in prison for embarrassing the government.
According to local media reports, the new change in law calls for journalists to think before they act and speak or else pay the stringent consequences. And that means a jail sentence that could potentially entail a duration of 2 to 14 years.
The new law was recently announced by the British Government with the plans to reform their Official Secrets Act.point 206 |
Moreover, it was also revealed at a recent meeting how the offense entailing reporters handling leaked documents would no longer have any form of defense, in case it’s charged under the new laws that have been uniquely designed to clamp down upon different foreign agents.point 234 | 1
Moreover, reports also spoke about how the 1989 act is currently being updated towards taking into account the great impact relating to the internet age as well as the speed with which data is being transferred too.
A number of human rights institutions as well as the Law Commission drew up several proposals claiming how there needs to be some sort of public interest defense. This will help to prevent the prosecution of reporters who have been involved in receiving leaked forms of data and documents.
Meanwhile, critics believe that if the rules get into place now, it could potentially lead to a prosecution of many reporters that were involved in revealing how Matt Hancock broke plenty of COVID rules by engaging in an affair alongside one of his married aides.point 343 |
And that was only because that story was solely based upon data leaked via CCTV footage.point 73 | 1
In the end, all of the revelations led to his resignation and an uneventful end to his marriage too.
The new laws have received their fair share of criticism from both the Index on Censorship as well as Open Rights Group who claim it is a direct attack upon all whistleblowers.