Home secretary Theresa May has assured journalists that action will be taken to protect reporters’ confidential sources and there will be safeguards to prevent people being held for long periods, without charge, on police bail.
She made the pledges during a speech at the Journalists’ Charity’s annual reception at the Irish embassy in London.
Ministers acknowledged journalists’ concerns about the accessing of data by the police, said May, and the fear that this might lead to the identification of their sources.
Aware of concerns that the police had been “a little over zealous”, the government had accepted recommendations made by Sir Anthony May, the Interception of Communications Commissioner, and will introduce a statutory code of practice.
May said that if police wished to access data that might lead to the identification of a journalist’s sources then a judge would need to authorise the access. A clear public interest reason would be required.
She also recognised that journalists had been among those who had challenged the government on the length of pre-trial bail without charge. (Many Sun journalists were held for as long as three years, sometimes longer, on police bail).
May said it could not be right that people had been on bail “not just for months, but sometimes years without being charged, and their life put on hold”.
In the first instance, she said, pre-charge bail would be limited to 28 days, but in exceptional cases there would be judicial oversight.
May also expressed her admiration for the scope of the Journalists’ Charity’s work in looking after journalists who had fallen on hard times or were in need of help.
It even prompted her to make a joke (something of a rarity for the home secretary) by remarking that MPs recognised the problem of helping colleagues in distress: “we just call it the House of Lords”.
Source: Journalists’ Charity
