{"id":308940,"date":"2025-12-08T12:00:05","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T12:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=308940"},"modified":"2025-12-02T05:43:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T05:43:39","slug":"files-expose-britains-secret-d-notice-censorship-regime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/12\/files-expose-britains-secret-d-notice-censorship-regime\/","title":{"rendered":"Files Expose Britain\u2019s Secret D-Notice Censorship Regime"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Documents obtained by The Grayzone reveal how British soldiers and spies censor news reporting on \u2018national security,\u2019 coercing reporters into silence. The files show the Committee boasting of a \u201c90% + success rate\u201d in enforcing the official British line on any controversial story \u2013 or disappearing reports entirely.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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1 Dec 2025\u00a0<\/em>– A new trove of documents obtained by The Grayzone through freedom of information (FOI) requests provide unprecedented insight into Britain\u2019s little-known military and intelligence censorship board. The contents lay bare how the secretive Defence and Security Media Advisory (DSMA) Committee censors the output of British journalists, while categorizing independent media as \u201cextremist\u201d for publishing \u201cembarrassing\u201d stories. The body imposes what are known as D-Notices, gag-orders systematically suppressing information available to the public.The files provide the clearest view to date of the inner workings of the opaque committee, exposing which news items the British national security state has sought to shape or keep from public view. These include the bizarre 2010 death of a GCHQ codebreaker, MI6 and British special forces activity in the Middle East and Africa, the sexual abuse of children by government officials, and the death of Princess Diana.<\/p>\n

The files show the shadowy Committee maintains an iron grip over the output of legacy British media outlets, transforming British journalists to royal court stenographers. With the Committee having firmly imposed themselves on the editorial process, a wide range of reporters have submitted \u201capologies\u201d to the board for their media offenses, flaunting their subservience in order to maintain their standing within British mainstream media.<\/p>\n

In addition, the documents also show the Committee\u2019s intentions to extend the D-Notice system to social media, stating its desire to engage with \u201ctech giants\u201d in a push to suppress revealing disclosures on platforms like Meta and Twitter\/X.<\/p>\n

How The Grayzone obtained the files<\/strong><\/p>\n

The DSMA Committee describes itself<\/a> as \u201can independent advisory body composed of senior civil servants and editors\u201d which brings together representatives of the security services, army, government officials, press association chiefs, senior editors, and reporters. The system forges a potent clientelist rapport between journalists and powerful state agencies, heavily influencing<\/a> what national security matters get reported on in the mainstream, and how. The Committee also routinely issues so-called \u201cD-Notices,\u201d demanding media outlets seek its \u201cadvice\u201d before reporting certain stories, or simply asking they avoid particular topics outright.<\/p>\n

The DSMA Committee is funded by<\/a> and housed in Britain\u2019s Ministry of Defence (MOD), chaired<\/a> by the MOD\u2019s Director General of Security Policy Paul Wyatt, and 36-year British Army veteran Brigadier Geoffery Dodds serves as its Secretary<\/a>, raising serious questions about the extent to which British \u2018news\u2019 on national security could effectively be written by the Ministry of Defence.<\/p>\n

Even though the MOD explicitly retains the right to dismiss its Secretary, the DSMA Committee insists<\/a> it operates independently from the British government. This means the Committee isn\u2019t subject to British FOI laws.<\/p>\n

So how did The Grayzone obtain these files?<\/p>\n

The unprecedented disclosure was the result of an effort by the Committee to assist Australia\u2019s government<\/a> in creating a D-Notice system of their own. In doing so, it established a papertrail which Canberra was forced to release under its own FOI laws. Australian authorities fought tooth and nail to prevent the documents\u2019 release for over five months, until the country\u2019s Information Commissioner forced the Department of Home Affairs to release them.<\/p>\n

Official \u2018advice\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The files obtained by The Grayzone comprise records<\/a> of multiple meetings<\/a> attended by officials from a variety of Australian government departments and the DSMA Committee, answers<\/a> from the UK\u2019s Committee staff to questions posed by Canberra on how the system functions in practice, and a 36-page report<\/a> from a 2015 internal DSMA Committee review which outlines the history of the D-Notice system, and includes a comprehensive list<\/a> of requests for \u201cadvice\u201d received and submitted over the previous five years.<\/p>\n

The Committee operates simultaneously secretly and above ground. The documents note \u201cconversations between the DSMA system and journalists\/media organisations are confidential.\u201d In fact, the Committee states in a briefing given to Australian officials that it isn\u2019t even \u201crequired to submit evidence from discussions with media as part of police investigations or court proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n

In theory, the system is voluntary, and publications are not legally obliged to comply with the Committee\u2019s orders to censor or distort information. But the vast majority of British journalists obey the DSMA Committee\u2019s \u201cadvice,\u201d with nearly all D-notices and advice resulting in stories being spiked or altered.<\/p>\n

The Committee\u2019s 2015 internal review<\/a>, which was prompted by the Edward Snowden affair, explained how \u201cin serious cases,\u201d the British government can \u201cseek a court injunction\u201d or prosecute journalists who violate Committee advice under the Official Secrets Act \u2013 a point the DSMA Secretary, Brig. Dodds, emphasized in meetings with Australian officials. Since then, Britain has introduced sweeping new national security laws<\/a> under which journalists and whistleblowers could also face prosecution.<\/p>\n

TO CONTINUE READING<\/a> Go to Original \u2013 thegrayzone.substack.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 Dec 2025\u00a0– Documents reveal how British soldiers and spies censor news reporting on \u2018national security,\u2019 coercing reporters into silence. The Committee boasts a \u201c90% + success rate\u201d in enforcing the official British line on any controversial story \u2013 or disappearing reports entirely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":111953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[1785,433,1138,1748,125,378,234,2571,639],"class_list":["post-308940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","tag-censorship","tag-europe","tag-fake-news","tag-fake-report","tag-freedom-of-the-press","tag-journalism","tag-media","tag-official-lies-and-narratives","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308940"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":308951,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308940\/revisions\/308951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}