A weekly newspaper has hit out what it has called a ‘Big Brother-style’ media accreditation policy to be implemented by the Tories ahead of the forthcoming election.
Reporters and photographers wanting to attend Conservative Party events and speeches will have to provide its headquarters with personal details including their home address, passport and driving licence numbers, and a photograph in order to qualify.
Applications made after 5.30pm on Friday 27 March will also incur a £20 fee, and the information will be retained by the party after the election.
It is understood the accreditation will only be needed for pre-election events involving high-profile party members, such as Prime Minister David Cameron, pictured left, rather than local MPs and candidates ordinarily covered by regional newspapers.
The Conservatives say the system is currently employed for their party conferences, and that similar media accreditation schemes have been run during previous election campaigns.
But the move has been publicly criticised by the Milton Keynes Citizen, which received a memo on the policy earlier this week.
Deputy editor Ben Raza told HTFP: “I don’t understand why the Conservative Party needs to have local reporters across the country hand over their personal details.
“It’s an utter Big Brother-style policy and there’s no real explanation offered as to why it’s necessary.
“David Cameron is a man who can’t be even be trusted to bring his own kids home from the pub so I don’t trust him to look after my details.”
Earlier this week Ashley Highfield, chief executive of the Citizen’s owner Johnston Press, warned politicians who “underestimate” the press could face “disastrous consequences” during an appearance on the BBC’s Daily Politics show.
A Tory Party spokesman told HTFP: “As with previous elections we have a media accreditation system for the campaign given the larger interest from local, national and international media.”
In a statement to the Citizen, he added: “This is the system we use for all party conferences, it’s the same system as that. The information will only be used for that, and if reporters want to attend other events in the future.”
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I’d just not bother sending my reporters to these events in that case. Surely the Toriea should be grateful for the publicity?
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Sounds like the best excuse not to attend a Conservative Party conference ever. I could give you a precis of what will be said anyway. “Gordon Brown blah blah blah”. And you can quote me on that.
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Most local papers do not have the staff the send out anyway. I wonder how their skeletal staffing is going to deal with having to shoot videos and file live results to websites on election night. Or will it all be left to next morning?
Let’s be honest, newspaper sales are so low now that their political influence is close to zero. The weekly paper in my area, served by a couple of reporters, sells 6,000 copies, covering an area of about 200,000 people. Not exactly saturation coverage and because of the age of the population people will not be glued to computer screens, even though they know how to use them.
The Tories have nothing to lose by upsetting the local rags.
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Anyone but a mischief-making Labour supporter would understand that with high-profile politicians there is a security aspect. Without strict accreditation, unknown Charlie Brown from “the local paper” could wander in with any sort of harmful device and do his worst. And talking of accreditation, ever tried getting a Press pass for a Premier or Football League game if you are not a national staffer? It’s Draconian. Make a fresh application for every game, proving public liability insurance at £200,000, sign this disclaimer, that disclaimer, and don’t describe play action while the game’s in progress!
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Perhaps Citizen Dave is worried someone might ask him a real question.
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John Rogers’ comment is curious. British democracy has limped along for a few centuries now without every local journalist having to hand over their address, personal phone numbers, passport and driving licence details, a personal photo and £20. Details, I might add, which will be kept on file forever. Perhaps John is unfamiliar with the concept of identity fraud, but these are exactly the sort of details which would be a boon to anyone thinking of committing it.
Also, I’ve personally interviewed several Prime Ministers in the past, and have so far resisted the temptation to assassinate them. I am not sure what sort of crazed political killer will be put off by a £20 advance fee.
Finally, we have a league club in Milton Keynes and have no problems when attending games, so he’s wrong on that score too. Sorry John!
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@ John Rogers, If there was a security aspect to this then it would be handled by the police – how is a political party going to vet potential applicants? I’ve been screened for various royal jobs, for example, and I’ve only ever had to provide my address and DOB which is fair enough. Asking for more, and money, is nefarious.
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Get real boys and girls.
No one gives a stuff except the politicians and the hacks whether the events get covered or not. Readers find this stuff so boring.
Good human interest story would be better.
Keep your £20 and give it to the trainee.
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It is annoying – and a very long-winded form. But Labour have a similar process.
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Is John Rogers a Tory party agent? The fact that a media outlet has vouched for someone covering an event on their behalf should be enough for any organisation. They should not need an individual’s home address, only some form of photo ID on the day. These days employers have to have seen your passport to prove that you have a right to work in this country, so these ‘security’ checks have been done already. I’d give my address as ‘care of’ the newspaper.
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Thinking about it: if a theatre demanded a newspaper pay for tickets when doing a review, most newspapers would tell them where to go and the Tories have much more money than most provincial theatres.
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The £20 fee is the worst kind of try-on. As for the security aspect, a current press card and a confirmation letter from an editor should be sufficient. I’d be inclined not to bother attending any of these events – you know what they’ll be anyway: pictures of politicians in high-vis jackets and hard hats laying a brick, sitting with bemused children in a classroom, speaking with a load of slack-jawed people staring at their backs…[continued on page 94]
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Did the Labour conference a couple of years ago for a regional daily, sat there with my own laptop across from some goons form the Express who just sat there moaning about their hotel (the Hilton) and slagging everyone off. The local Labour PR goon was also the most odious human being I’d ever met, he looked like a cross between Matthew Wright and the contents of my bowels.
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Jeff Jones – You paint a vivid word picture there. It is as if we were actually at the event you describe, with each character defined with deft brush strokes of prose – really getting under the skin of the people around you.
Are you a political sketch writer for a leading magazine?
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I had a commission to commission to cover a recent Conservative Party conference in Birmingham for a long-standing (est 1863) weekly newspaper.
Because the newspaper wasn’t “Fleet Street”, the party demanded that I pay a £500 “commercial observer” fee.
That was the end of that commission.
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