BREAKING: Gove’s Cabinet office is running an ‘Orwellian’ unit to ‘blacklist’ journalists & block sensitive FOI requests.

What are they hiding? Today @openDemocracy announces a legal bid w/ @LeighDay_Law to challenge govt secrecy. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/uk-government-running-orwellian-unit-to-block-release-of-sensitive-information/">https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-m...

The secretive & #39;Clearing House& #39; collates lists of journalists that are shared across Whitehall.

Departments have had to show drafts of FOI responses to the Clearing House – effectively centralising control within Gove’s office over what information is released to the public

Journalists & orgs profiled by this unit include @guardiannews @thetimes, @bbcnews @ @privacyint @BigBrotherWatch – and our very own @JennaCorderoy

Read her story here. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/i-sent-fois-to-uk-government-departments-then-they-shared-my-personal-data/">https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-m...

@DavidDavisMP says it’s ‘certainly against the spirit of the FOI Act - and probably the letter too’. So do @NUJofficial & @CampaignFoI

Our new report ‘Art of Darkness’ reveals the disastrous consequences for press freedom – and the worst govt offenders https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20415987-art-of-darkness-opendemocracy">https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents...

Throughout COVID-19, our journalism has exposed how Johnson’s govt has run roughshod over our rights and transparency protections

Please consider support @openDemocracy today so we can hold our leaders accountable. Thank you! https://support.opendemocracy.net/project/home ">https://support.opendemocracy.net/project/h...