Digital Economy Bill: new offences for the disclosure of information and the risk to journalists – #press #freedom #speech #democracy

Digital Economy Bill: new offences for the disclosure of information and the risk to journalists – Dan Tench | Inforrm's Blog

Digital Economy Bill: new offences for the disclosure of information and the risk to journalists – Dan Tench

26072016

In the recent weeks of political furore, readers may have missed the publication on 5 July of the Digital Economy Bill.  The Bill contains a ragbag of provisions from controlling access to online pornography to regulation of the BBC.

However, it is Part 5 entitled “Digital Government”which is perhaps most striking for media lawyers since it contains a number of real curiosities including potentially a number of new criminal offences which could apply to journalists publishing leaked material.