NUJ responds to Reform banning Local Democracy Reporter in Derbyshire
The NUJ has condemned the decision by Derbyshire County Council's Reform UK leadership to no longer engage with a Local Democracy Reporter.
During a live interview Stephen Reed, deputy leader, announced that Eddie Bisknell, Local Democracy Reporter didn't give the council enough time to comment on a story and therefore decided to end all engagement with the journalist.
Reed later accepted that his initial claim was incorrect. Despite this, the decision to block the journalist remains in place.
Laura Davison, NUJ general secretary, said:
“It cannot be right that in a functioning democracy, those with their hands on the levers of power and directing the spending of hundreds of millions of pounds should pick and choose which journalists they want to deal with.
“The deputy leader of Derbyshire County Council has said that a ‘political decision’ was taken not to engage with one reporter from the BBC-funded Local Democracy Reporting Service.
“For this to have been announced live on air on local BBC radio about an individual journalist without any warning is not the action of responsible local politicians.
“The NUJ stands 100% behind any of its members who is targeted in such a manner and whose professional integrity is unfairly tarnished.
“We urge the Reform group on Derbyshire County Council to get off its high horse and respect the democratic norms voters and local communities they represent expect. We expect nothing less than for the ‘engagement’ ban it has imposed to be lifted immediately.”
Last year Mick Barton, leader of Reform UK in Nottinghamshire, imposed a ban on reporters from the Nottingham Post/Nottinghamshire Live news website. The ban was later lifted. After alerting local MPs - who raised the issue in parliament - the NUJ Nottingham branch secured a government pledge to introduce new legislation to strengthen “objectively, accountability and transparency” in local councils. This includes a new Code of Conduct for councillors with penalties for those who breach the code.