The Lord Chancellor has sought to justify proposed law changes, which will effectively curb press freedom, with a stinging attack on the media.
At the Lord Williams of Mostyn Memorial Lecture, Lord Falconer accused the press of misusing the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and of causing unnecessary distress to families by its reporting on coroners’ hearings.
He said: “The government’s draft Coroners Reform Bill…proposes that the coroner should be able, in certain cases like child deaths and suicides, to impose certain restrictions on what can be reported, namely anonymity.” He added that fam-ily courts should allow some public access.
Claiming the press used the Act to mount ‘fishing expeditions’ aimed at uncovering stories about the government, he said: “[The Act] is not for press it is for the people…Information needs to be handled responsibly.”
Journalists, he said, account for about 16% of the total cost of central government freedom of information requests.
The government is proposing new regulations to restrict access to information under the Act. Up to 20,000 requests, which currently have to be dealt with by public authorities, could
