RSF and English PEN urge Theresa May to fulfil pledge to repeal punitive law

Rt Hon Theresa May MP

10 Downing Street

London

SW1A 2AA

10 January 2018

Dear Prime Minister,

We are writing to register our concern over the government’s failure to respond to the consultation on Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013, which closed one year ago today on 10 January 2017. Further, the Conservative Party Manifesto of May 2017 pledged to repeal Section 40, and yet eight months on, no action has been taken to honour that commitment.

Our organisations, English PEN and Reporters Without Borders, drafted a joint submission to the consultation, calling for the repeal of Section 40, which we believe poses a serious threat to press freedom. In our submission, we noted:

“Section 40 would introduce an unprecedented chilling effect for publishers and journalists in the UK, leading to self-censorship and a reduction in public interest reporting. The essential role of the press in our democracy would therefore be undermined, as well as the scope for any writer to investigate matters of concern and national interest for the public”.

We note that the continued presence of Section 40 is one of many current threats to press freedom in the UK. It is part of a worrying trend that resulted in the UK dropping to 40^th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ 2017 World Press Freedom Index, published in April 2017, and there has been further deterioration since then.

We urge you to take immediate action to fulfil the Conservative Party’s pledge to repeal Section 40, and to ensure a timely response to the more than 140,000 stakeholders who engaged in good faith in the consultation of last year. Eliminating the threat posed by Section 40 would be a step in the right direction towards improving the UK’s worrying press freedom record.

Sincerely yours,

Antonia Byatt, Interim Director, English PEN

Rebecca Vincent, UK Bureau Director, Reporters Without Borders