The Labour Party has refused to let acclaimed Declassified UK journalist (and former Canary writer) John McEvoy access to its party conference in Liverpool – despite an intervention from the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).
Labour: barring actual journalists from conference
As Declassified itself wrote:
Declassified’s reporter John McEvoy will not be allowed into the ruling party’s gathering when it starts in Liverpool on Sunday, Labour officials have decided.
The move has drawn condemnation from the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Reporters Without Borders.
It comes weeks after McEvoy exposed the influence of super-rich party donors and pro-Israel lobby groups over Keir Starmer’s cabinet.
At the time of publication, outrage over the decision was growing. Wikileaks shared the news:
The Labour Party has refused to grant investigative media outlet @declassifiedUK access to its annual conference 👇 https://t.co/BSclmKpaAf
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) September 20, 2024
Of course, Labour has form on this – even under Jeremy Corbyn:
After banning me from conference in 2019, Labour has now banned another journalist for the crime of exposing the Israel lobby’s influence on them: @jmcevoy_2 of @declassifiedUK https://t.co/ek7tApfdn7
— Asa Winstanley (@AsaWinstanley) September 20, 2024
Meanwhile, as the Canary has documented Keir Starmer’s Labour has no problem allowing Tory think tanks access. We revealed on 16 September that the Iain Duncan Smith-founded Centre for Social Justice will be co-hosting panels at conference – as will DWP contractor Maximus.
Moreover, as McEvoy himself tweeted the current Labour Party won’t let ethical journalists in – but will quite happily cosy up with arms manufacturers, currently complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza:
The Labour party has barred me from its 2024 conference while allowing BAE Systems to sponsor events there.
BAE Systems supplies components for Israel's F-35 jets which are being used to annihilate Gaza – all with Labour's approval.https://t.co/ZjtVW8fKfQ
— John McEvoy (@jmcevoy_2) September 20, 2024
Stenographers: free passes all round
McEvoy told the Canary:
The Labour party has refused to provide any satisfactory explanation as to why I have been barred from its conference. We can confidently assume that the decision has been made because of Declassified’s critical reporting on Labour’s support for Israel amid the Gaza genocide and the influence of Israel lobby groups in British politics.
To this end it is remarkable that the Labour party has allowed some of the very arms companies that are supplying Israel’s armed forces to sponsor events at its conference. Keir Starmer’s “changed” Labour party seems more comfortable in the presence of merchants of death than journalists who might ask the wrong kinds of questions.
There is of course a bigger problem, here – and it’s that Starmer’s Labour is carrying on in exactly the same manner as the Tories. This photo sums it up best:
We are already seeing the corporate media largely acting as mere stenographers for the Labour government. Any criticism either comes from the right-wing press (which has its own agendas) or is centred around little more than gossip-column tittle tattle – like the Sue Gray salary affair.
McEvoy is perhaps one of the most important working journalists in the UK. He actually does journalism that hold the powerful to account. Therefore, his presence at conference would have been a threat to the Labour Party. Hence it refused him a pass.
So, expect corporate media coverage of the Labour Party conference to swerve from the banal to the ridiculous; all without any actual journalism at all. Meanwhile, Declassified UK (and the Canary) will of course be covering the conference without fear or favour.
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Featured image via the Canary
