UK State reply to the alert of 1 September, Investigative Media Outlet "Declassified UK" Blacklisted by the Ministry of Defence, on the platform at your earliest convenience.

The United Kingdom is a strong supporter of the Council of Europe’s extensive work on media freedom, from its comprehensive standards and legal guidelines to its important early-warning mechanism: the Platform to promote the protection of journalism and safety of journalists.   We take seriously and consider closely every media alert issued in relation to the UK.

In this instance, the Ministry of Defence was wrong not to provide a comment to Mr Miller of Declassified UK on the story about which he was enquiring.

On 21 September 2020 the Secretary of State for Defence made a Statement to Parliament indicating that the Ministry of Defence will treat media outlets with fairness and impartiality and that he has written to Defence communicators across the Ministry of Defence and all services to emphasise that point.  The Statement to Parliament also indicates that the Secretary of State has asked communications professional Tom Kelly to lead an independent review to look into the allegations that the standards of the Civil Service Code and Government Communication Service Propriety Guidance have not always been met in the Ministry of Defence and to establish what underlies them - the Secretary of State will report back to Parliament following the conclusion of the review.