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Nigel Farage’s deplatforming of several media outlets from the Reform Party conference last week continues a growing trend of populist politicians refusing access to journalists in an attempt to control coverage and is a trick straight out of Donald Trump‘s media playbook.
Farage‘s party revoked a ticket to attend its Birmingham conference to Byline Times reporter Josiah Mortimer. Sam Bright, an investigative journalist for climate publication, DeSmog, was also blocked, as was pro-EU writer and campaigner Femi Olowule and the Observer’s Carole Cadwalladr.
Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ General Secretary: “For a party that claims to care about free speech and media freedom, Reform’s decision to restrict journalists’ access is a bad look.
“Cherry-picking attendance harms the breadth of diversity reporting on events – we urge a rethink of the policy, ensuring all journalists can attend future party conferences.”
This was not an isolated incident from Reform, but an escalation of their standard practice. In July, the party had Oluwole physically removed from a party rally, with no reason offered.
He was also denied access to Labour’s conference last weekend after the party suggested they could not “find any evidence the applicant is a working journalist or photographer with a political portfolio or working on behalf of a relevant media outlet”.
Of this exclusion, the reporter who has published work in the Independent, the Guardian, Metro, and the New Statesman, claimed on X that Labour “simply lied to censor a journalist they don’t like”.
Ridiculing human rights protesters and banning young Black journalists, while embracing Tories and genocidal ambassadors, isn’t convincing anyone that this Government represents change
Femi Oluwole
The party also barred Declassified reporter John McEvoy which was condemned by the UK Director of Reporters Without Borders and the National Union of Journalists.
Fiona O’Brien, UK director of Reporters Without Borders, told Declassified that it was “alarming to hear that an accredited journalist has had his request for a pass to Labour’s conference denied, without a satisfactory explanation”.
If the new government is really committed to open democracy, it needs to guarantee fair and free access to the political process for a wide range of media, not just for the mainstream
Fiona O’Brien, UK director of Reporters Without Borders
David Yelland, Sun editor from 1998 to 2003, warns that Reform’s media strategy is to align
with the right-wing press as it abandons the beleaguered Conservative party.
Tim Gopsill, who writes for the Campaign For Press And Broadcasting Freedom, told Byline Times that politicians like Trump and Farage “who ban certain reporters from their events like to imagine they are taking on the powerful and the establishment who are out to get them” and added that “they think it convinces the powerless they are on their side”.
While, the former editor of The Journalist, explained that “sometimes these things may even be true. Much of the US media really are out to get Trump, and millions apparently do fall for his pose. But more people are repelled by his obnoxious behaviour.
“It just looks to everybody as if these politicians must have something to hide. That might well be true as well.”
Denying press access not only leads to slanted and imbalanced coverage but creates public distrust, fosters polarisation and undermines democracy.
While Trump likes to shutdown and shutout critical voices, attempts to deny media access have occurred in the UK long before Farage and his Reform Party gave it a try.
The Trump Media Playbook
Trump has always had a difficult relationship with the press, not helped by the fact some media outlets kept a running tally of his lies (the Washington Post noted, in 2021, that he told 30,573 over four years), and he often lashed out with personal and insulting attacks on reporters.
While on the campaign trail in 2015, Trump mocked New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski’s physical disability – at other times, he has expressed support for followers who physically attack journalists at his rallies.
At Trump’s very first press conference as President-elect, CNN‘s chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, tried to ask him a question about Russia, but was ignored, before his outlet was branded “fake news”.
In another incident an intern in the press room tried to remove Acosta’s microphone after he quizzed the President about his racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric and TV ads.
The Whitehouse later rescinded Acosta’s press pass and released a doctored video of the incident involving the intern to make it appear more dramatic.
At the time, CNN said the revocation of Acosta’s pass “…was done in retaliation for his challenging questions at today’s press conference”.
“Relevant precedent says that a journalist has a First Amendment right of access to places closed to the public but open generally to the press. That includes press rooms and news conferences,” Jonathan Peters, Media law professor at the University of Georgia said.
“In those places, if access is generally inclusive of the press, then access can’t be denied arbitrarily or absent compelling reasons. And the reasons that the White House gave were wholly unconvincing and un-compelling.”
CNN initially challenged the matter in the court, but dropped the case when Acosta’s pass was reinstated.
Ultimately, Trump’s relationship with the media broke down completely, and his Whitehouse went an unprecedented 300 days without giving a formal press briefing.
While Trump circumvented the media by tweeting directly, the lack of formal press briefings reduced transparency and oversight during critical points of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Anointed Behind Closed Doors
In 2023, following the resignation of Nicola Sturgeon, three candidates – Humza Yousaf, Kate Forbes, and Ash Regan – faced election to be SNP leader and the First Minister of Scotland.
The SNP’s National Executive Committee (NEC), led by Peter Murrell, husband of the outgoing leader, controlled the selection process. The Nine hustings were initially announced as ‘media-free’, with the party claiming it wanted a “safe space for members to ask questions of the three candidates”.
The move sparked a public outcry from opposition parties, the public, and the press, and when asked about it, all three candidates said they had nothing to fear from media coverage.
Following a joint bid by BBC, Sky, ITN, and STV, the party allowed media access, but limited it to one broadcast journalist, one camera, and one print reporter at each event.
Perhaps the SNP NEC had been hoping to suppress not just the views of the candidates but also the views of the members. The very first question asked was an attack on the media, with one member telling the candidates that if they appeared on a televised debate, they would be “getting into bed with your mortal enemies”.
While the comments on the media came from the SNP members, Conor Matchett reported in the Scotsman that the leadership candidates all had a track record of attacking the media to defend their track records.
Yousaf blamed biased media coverage for his poor performance as Health Secretary. Kate Forbes struggled with media scrutiny of her extreme conservative and religious views, and Regan’s suffered credibility issues due to the media quoting her verbatim.
Following the embarrassing and critical coverage of the first two hustings, the SNP reverted to a closed-door policy with no media or public access from the third hustings.
Shutting out Critical Voices
Boris Johnson’s Conservative administration was continually scrutinised for their mishandling of the pandemic which an inquiry would later illuminate in great detail.
Veteran journalist James Cusick of OpenDemocracy raised critical questions and uncovered embarrassing stories about the party, Brexit and Dark Money, which led to his access being restricted.
Cusick was banned from asking questions at briefings denying the public access to critical information during the most challenging period of recent history.
Press Freedoms are slipping in the UK
The UK scores moderately well on the ‘Press Freedom Index‘. In 2024, out of 180 countries, Britain is 23rd.
Given we were 40th in 2017, that seems like good progress, but the numbers don’t tell the whole story.
The rankings are relative; other countries may have deteriorated faster, but our score against the criteria has worsened.
In 2011, the UK Government’s position was clear. When a British journalist was barred without explanation from the Russian Federation, Minister for Europe, Conservative MP David Lidington told parliament: “A free media and freedom of expression is a vital element of any free and democratic society and the Government deplores any restriction on those freedoms.”
Eleven years later, the Council of Europe raised concerns that the British government was
avoiding oversight by excluding journalists from Priti Patel’s trip to sign the much-criticised Rwanda deal.
This stagnation, combined with lawsuits aimed at silencing investigative journalists, the
proliferation of job cuts in the sector, and the latest attempts to de-platform journalists, signals an ongoing erosion of press freedoms domestically.
In the US, when Acosta’s press pass was revoked, he was able to claim a constitutional right and got it back. Do we now need stronger press protection in the UK? Media reform is in the sights of the New Government.
Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, in a panel discussion at the party conference last week, said: “It’s in the Labour Party’s interest and in the Labour movement’s long-term interest to
regulate the media properly instead of making short-term pacts and truces.”
However, meaningful reform must simultaneously protect the independent and diverse press while reining in powerful oligarch-owned media.
Keir Starmer stepped away from media reform in the run-up to the election, probably to court favourable coverage, he must focus on it as British journalism is in crisis.
Democracy Needs Transparency to Work
Much mainstream media ownership has been monopolised under a few oligarchs, while politicians increasingly feel emboldened to refuse access to journalists and outlets who threaten to hold them accountable.
Such actions are designed to stifle dissent but create a dangerous echo chamber where only sympathetic voices are allowed.
Compounding the problem, populist figures like Farage, can further control the narrative by delivering the news themselves, on channels, like GB News, that give them the platform to do so.
Byline Times has extensively reported on Reform UK, and we will continue to cover, question, and criticise those in and seeking power. But we can only do it with the help of our readers. It is more important than ever to defend the rights of a free press, for without it, democracy itself is at risk.