A local paper whose journalists have been ostracised by a Reform UK council is taking legal action, arguing the move is a breach of its right to free expression.
The Nottingham Post, and its online site Nottinghamshire Live, has been barred from speaking to the council’s leader and removed from media mailing lists by the Reform-led Nottinghamshire county council.
The council’s leader, Mick Barton, took exception to a story about splits in his group over local government reorganisation plans. Natalie Fahy, the site’s editor, previously told the Guardian that the incident was a troubling sign of things to come should the party form the next government.
The company behind the paper has now begun a legal challenge against the council, after private talks failed to completely lift the ban.
There has been a partial rolling back of the ban. It was lifted from a team of BBC-funded local democracy journalists that the paper also manages. However, the measures remained in place on other Nottinghamshire Live journalists.
The local authority now has until Thursday to respond to a legal letter from Reach Midlands Media, the publisher of Nottinghamshire Live and the Nottingham Post. It sets out that further steps may be taken if the council does not respond by reversing the ban.
The letter, drawn up with lawyers in conjunction with Nottinghamshire Live’s in-house legal team, sets out their belief that the ban was put in place without legal basis “due to its irrationality”.
It states the company’s belief that the decision breached local government regulations, as well as article 10 of the European convention on human rights. The article protects freedom of expression and the right to express opinions “freely without government interference”.
It also claims the ban breaches Nottinghamshire county council’s own councillor code of conduct.
While the three BBC-funded local democracy reporters will be able to interact with the council and elected members as normal, the ban remains in place for other journalists at the titles. The company said it had been denied interviews with Barton.
The ban has had ramifications far beyond Nottinghamshire and was even mentioned in US Congress. The Reform leader, Nigel Farage, was confronted over it when he was giving evidence to a committee about free speech in the UK.
Nottinghamshire county council declined to comment.
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The saga has been condemned by local MPs and politicians and highlighted by other political parties. Max Wilkinson, the Liberal Democrat media spokesperson, accused Reform of authoritarian tactics.
“Nigel Farage claimed that Britain was turning into North Korea,” he said. “But it is his colleagues in Nottinghamshire who are acting like the North Korean government by implementing a press ban Kim Jong-un would be proud of.
“Farage should get his own house in order rather than talking down our country on a daily basis. He needs to personally step in and get this ban lifted and stop his party using Trumpian tactics to shut down proper scrutiny.”
The publisher of the Nottingham Post has already spoken of an “increasingly Trumpian approach” to the media creeping into British politics since the Reform-led council’s ban.
David Higgerson, the chief content officer for Reach, the owner of the Daily Mirror and local titles including the Nottingham Post, said it was part of a trend that went wider than Reform.
