Defence, Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee
Encyclopedia
The Defence, Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee is the British
advisory body which issues DA-Notice
s. The secretary is a former two-star military officer employed from a Ministry of Defence
budget and is housed by them (although technically independent) and the committee is made up of senior civil servants and representatives of national media organisations. In 1993 the committee was renamed from the Defence, Press and Broadcasting Committee.
The five government positions on the committee are all ex officio - the chairman is always the current Permanent Under Secretary of the Ministry of Defence. The 2nd Permanent Under Secretary of the Ministry of Defence, the Cabinet Office
Permanent Secretary
, the Permanent Under Secretary of the Home Office
and the Deputy Under Secretary from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
are the other officers. The Vice Chairman is chosen by the press members from among their number.
The media representatives are nominated by the following organisations:
s to UK newspapers regarding an expected major publication by WikiLeaks
of a "huge cache" of United States
(US) diplomatic cables. Index on Censorship
presented this as part of "a harm minimisation strategy the US government has embarked on [with] an impressive briefing campaign, reaching out to allies across the world."
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
advisory body which issues DA-Notice
DA-Notice
A DA-Notice or Defence Advisory Notice is an official request to news editors not to publish or broadcast items on specified subjects for reasons of national security...
s. The secretary is a former two-star military officer employed from a Ministry of Defence
Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....
budget and is housed by them (although technically independent) and the committee is made up of senior civil servants and representatives of national media organisations. In 1993 the committee was renamed from the Defence, Press and Broadcasting Committee.
Membership
The committee consists of five government representatives and 16 media representatives.The five government positions on the committee are all ex officio - the chairman is always the current Permanent Under Secretary of the Ministry of Defence. The 2nd Permanent Under Secretary of the Ministry of Defence, the Cabinet Office
Cabinet Office
The Cabinet Office is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for supporting the Prime Minister and Cabinet of the United Kingdom....
Permanent Secretary
Permanent Secretary
The Permanent secretary, in most departments officially titled the permanent under-secretary of state , is the most senior civil servant of a British Government ministry, charged with running the department on a day-to-day basis...
, the Permanent Under Secretary of the Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
and the Deputy Under Secretary from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
are the other officers. The Vice Chairman is chosen by the press members from among their number.
The media representatives are nominated by the following organisations:
- BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
- ITVITVITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
- ITN
- Sky TVBritish Sky BroadcastingBritish Sky Broadcasting Group plc is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Ireland....
- Periodical Publishers AssociationPeriodical Publishers AssociationThe Professional Publishers Association - formerly known as the Periodical Publishers Association - is a publishing industry body which promotes and protects the interests of companies involved in the production of consumer, customer and business media in the United Kingdom.The PPA's work is...
(2 nominations) - Newspaper Publishers Association (3 nominations)
- Newspaper Society (2 nominations)
- Press AssociationPress AssociationThe Press Association is the national news agency of the United Kingdom and Ireland, supplying multimedia news content to almost all national and regional newspapers, television and radio news, as well as many websites with text, pictures, video and data content globally...
- Scottish Daily Newspaper SocietyScottish Daily Newspaper SocietyThe Scottish Daily Newspaper Society is the trade body representing the major newspaper publishers of Scotland. Representing a total of 18 titles, together they accounted for aggregate weekly sales of 10 million in 2008....
- Society of Editors
- (Book) The Publishers Association
- GoogleGoogleGoogle Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
Actions
On 25 November 2010, the Defence, Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee sent DA-NoticeDA-Notice
A DA-Notice or Defence Advisory Notice is an official request to news editors not to publish or broadcast items on specified subjects for reasons of national security...
s to UK newspapers regarding an expected major publication by WikiLeaks
Wikileaks
WikiLeaks is an international self-described not-for-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press organisation, claimed a database of more...
of a "huge cache" of United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(US) diplomatic cables. Index on Censorship
Index on Censorship
Index on Censorship is a campaigning publishing organisation for freedom of expression, which produces an award-winning quarterly magazine of the same name from London. The present chief executive of Index on Censorship, since 2008, is the author, broadcaster and commentator John Kampfner, former...
presented this as part of "a harm minimisation strategy the US government has embarked on [with] an impressive briefing campaign, reaching out to allies across the world."
External links
- Official web site of DA-Notices and of the committee
- Christopher Moran, Classified: Secrecy and the State in Modern Britain (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012).
- Nicholas Wilkinson, Secrecy and the Media, The Official History of the United Kingdom's D-Notice System (London: Routledge, 2009).