https://www.declassifieduk.org/mod-refuses-to-apologise-after-declassified-called-extreme/

‘D-Notice’ committee secretary privately briefed Australian officials against Declassified

The Ministry of Defence is refusing to apologise for an official describing Declassified as “extreme” in a private briefing given to the Australian Attorney General’s office.

Brigadier Geoffrey Dodds was found to have described Declassified as an “extreme, non-msm [mainstream media]” organisation by The Grayzone, following a Freedom of Information request the media outlet made last year.

Dodds’ depiction of Declassified is contained in notes prepared by him for Australian officials in 2022.

As secretary of the Defence and Security Media Advisory (DSMA) Committee, Dodds was outlining instances in which some UK media organisations have refused to accept the advice of his committee. 

Better known as the ‘D-Notice’ committee, the DSMA exists supposedly to prevent media disclosing information that could compromise national security. It operates a purely voluntary system and there are no obligations for journalists to censor material after receiving a request from it.

In February 2022, Declassified refused to comply with a request from the DSMA Committee to censor the name of a British military official, Lieutenant Colonel Sid Purser, who was supporting Cameroon’s dictator, Paul Biya.

Biya, 93, has ruled the police state for more than four decades with British support even while our reporting has revealed that the UK government is well aware of his regime’s human rights abuses.

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DSMA is a government body meaning its officers must comply with the civil service code. The code states that “You must not act in a way that unjustifiably favours or discriminates against particular individuals or interests”.  

This quote is important since it relates to Declassified’s blacklisting by the MoD in 2020. The code was explicitly highlighted in the MoD’s review of that blacklisting to show that MoD media officers were wrong to discriminate against us. 

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https://www.declassifieduk.org/mod-refuses-to-apologise-after-declassified-called-extreme/