UK Parliament committee rejects proposed changes to government collection and retention of confidential journalistic information News
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UK Parliament committee rejects proposed changes to government collection and retention of confidential journalistic information

The UK Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights released a report Tuesday on the bulk collection and retention of confidential journalistic material under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 and the draft Remedial Order proposed to change the Act, calling the changes inadequate to protect journalists and their sources.

In its conclusions, the Parliamentary committee found that:

The European Court of Human Rights was clear that journalistic material can only lawfully be retained where an independent authority has concluded that there is an overriding public interest in doing so. In its current form, the Remedial Order would allow the Investigatory Powers Commissioner to permit the retention of journalistic material even when there was no overriding public interest in doing so. The Joint Committee calls on the Government to amend the Remedial Order so that the Investigatory Powers Commissioner must order the destruction of the journalistic material unless convinced that there is an overriding public interest in retaining it.

However, the report approved the Remedial Order in part saying that the Committee “is satisfied that the Remedial Order would address some of the current incompatibility by requiring an independent authority (i.e the Investigatory Powers Commissioner) to pre-authorise searches of bulk interception material which is likely or intended to highlight journalistic material or sources.”

The proposed draft Remedial Order seeks to remedy an incompatibility found by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) regarding how the UK’s bulk interception regime approaches confidential journalistic material and sources of journalistic material.

The ECtHR found against the UK Government in Big Brother Watch and Others v UK in May 2021. The ECtHR found various violations of Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) and Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the ECHR arising from the lack of independent authorization for selecting journalistic material for examination or retaining such material.

In a further statement the Joint Committee said:

Freedom of the press is one of the essential foundations of a democratic society and is protected by the European Convention on Human Rights. The protection of journalistic sources is one of the cornerstones of a free press. Interferences with journalistic material may have a chilling effect on sources assisting the press to inform the public about matters of public interest.

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