04 May 2023

‘Dated’ Official Secrets Act must now include public interest defence – Matthew Proctor and Hanna Basha for The Times

Privacy and media experts Matthew Proctor and Hanna Basha write for The Times on the importance of allowing whistleblowers to hold the government to account. Article linked with kind permission.

Whistleblowing to hold government to account should not be deterred by matters of national security, writes Matthew Proctor and Hanna Basha from our Privacy and Media Team for The Times.

Article linked with kind permission here: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dated-official-secrets-act-must-now-include-public-interest-defence-2dqh9nrrp

About the Author

Matthew Proctor

View Profile

Hanna Basha

View Profile

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.

Necessary

Always Enabled

Functional

Performance

Analytics

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

Cookie	Duration	Description
_ga	2 years	The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors.
_gat_gtag_UA_109301815_3	1 minute	Set by Google to distinguish users.
_gid	1 day	Installed by Google Analytics, _gid cookie stores information on how visitors use a website, while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.
CONSENT	16 years 3 months 2 days 4 hours	YouTube sets this cookie via embedded youtube-videos and registers anonymous statistical data.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.

Cookie	Duration	Description
IDE	1 year 24 days	Google DoubleClick IDE cookies are used to store information about how the user uses the website to present them with relevant ads and according to the user profile.
test_cookie	15 minutes	The test_cookie is set by doubleclick.net and is used to determine if the user's browser supports cookies.
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE	5 months 27 days	A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface.
YSC	session	YSC cookie is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages.
yt-remote-connected-devices	never	YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video.
yt-remote-device-id	never	YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video.

Others

Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	1 year	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".

‘Dated’ Official Secrets Act must now include public interest defence – Matthew Proctor and Hanna Basha for The Times

About the Author

Related Content

Public Interest; Defence or Offence? Assange’s trial as a case study for reforms to the Official Secrets Acts

Hancock’s WhatsApp messages: Public Interest or Private Betrayal – Dominic Crossley for PR Week

LexisNexis: Continuing online publication and the public interest defence (Lachaux v Independent Print and another)