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# Secret courts to seize reporters' notebooks?
- URL: https://onemanandhisblog.com/2014/02/secret_courts_to_seize_reporters_noteboo/
- Published: 2014-02-03T12:51:29.000Z
- Updated: 2015-04-08T16:11:00.000Z
- Author: Adam Tinworth
- Tags: Journalism, legislation, Politics, sources

Just in case you missed it over the weekend, the UK Government are considering making it [possible to seize reporters’ notebooks and hard-drives](http://boingboing.net/2014/02/01/uk-parliament-considers-allowi.html?ref=onemanandhisblog.com), after secret hearings…

> The Deregulation Bill is coming before the UK House of Commons on Monday, and among its many “red-tape-cutting” provisions is one that would allow the courts to grant the police secret hearings in which they could secure orders to seize reporters’ notebooks, hard-drives and other confidential material. No one representing the reporters would be allowed to see the evidence in these “closed material procedures.”

This is a profoundly worrying attack on journalists’ ability to protect their sources – and the fact that secret hearings are involved is even more troubling. This will have a major impact on the ability of investigative journalists to do their work – and on the willingness of whistle-blowers to come forwards.