The Defence and Security Media Advisory (DSMA) Committee is a British government liaison advisory body established in 2015 which oversees a voluntary code which operates between the government departments which have responsibility for national security and the media. It has no formal censorship powers, but the notices it issues, typically regarding information sensitive to national defence and still informally known as " D-notices", are widely followed by the British media.

History

The committee and its predecessors have been known by many different names. *Admiralty, War Office and Press Committee, 1912–1919. An Assistant Secretary of the War Office and Mr. Robbins, the representative of the

Press Association PA Media (formerly the Press Association) is a multimedia news agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and All-news radio, radio and ...

, were joint Secretaries. Letters, or telegrams, were sent to editors when agreed. They came to be known as "Parkers" after Mr. Parke who was then the representative of the Newspaper Proprietors' Association on the committee. This evolved into the D-Notice system. *Admiralty, War Office, Air Ministry and Press Committee, 1919–1939. *Admiralty, War Office, Air Ministry and Press Committee, 1945–1967. Admiral George Thompson, who had been the Chief Press Censor during the war, became the Secretary of the committee in 1945. * Services, Press and Broadcasting Committee c.1967–1993. Vice Admiral Sir

Norman Denning Vice-Admiral Sir Norman Egbert Denning, (19 November 1904 – 27 December 1979) was a Royal Naval and Intelligence Officer at the Admiralty and Defence Intelligence Staff who served as Director of Naval Planning from 1945 to 1956, Director of ...

was appointed Secretary in 1967. *Defence, Press and Broadcasting Committee, 1993–2015. The records of the previous committees are held in the British National Archives. The Defence, Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee issued DA-Notices from 1993 to 2015. The secretary was a former two-star military officer employed from a

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

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.

Membership

The committee consisted of five government representatives and 16 media representatives. The five government positions on the committee were all

ex officio An ''ex officio'' member is a member of a body (notably a board, committee, or council) who is part of it by virtue of holding another office. The term '' ex officio'' is Latin, meaning literally 'from the office', and the sense intended is 'by r ...

– the chairman being the current Permanent Under Secretary of the Ministry of Defence. The 2nd Permanent Under Secretary of the Ministry of Defence, the

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for supporting the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister and Cabinet ...

Permanent Secretary A permanent secretary is the most senior Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil servant of a department or Ministry (government department), ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day activities. Permanent secretaries are ...

, the Permanent Under Secretary of the

Home Office The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...

and the Deputy Under Secretary from the

Foreign and Commonwealth Office The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is the ministry of foreign affairs and a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom. The office was created on 2 ...

were the other officers. The Vice Chairman was chosen by the press members from among their number. The media representatives were nominated by the following organisations: *

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

* ITV *

ITN Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based media production and broadcast journalism company. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, New York City, New York, Paris, Sydney and Washin ...

* Sky TV *

Periodical Publishers Association The Professional Publishers Association (PPA), formerly known as the Periodical Publishers Association until 2011, is the main publishing Industry trade group, industry body which promotes companies involved in the production of media, supporting t ...

(2 nominations) *

Newspaper Publishers Association The News Media Association is a trade body which styles itself as "the voice of national, regional and local news media organisations in the UK". It was created in 2014 by a merger between the Newspaper Society and the Newspaper Publishers' Associa ...

(3 nominations) * Newspaper Society (2 nominations) *

* Scottish Daily Newspaper Society *

Society of Editors The Society of Editors is an industry body for around 400 UK national and regional media editors, representatives and organisations. History and organization The Society has an elected president, chair and board of directors. It was formed b ...

*(Book) The Publishers Association *

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

(no longer a member as of )

Actions

On 25 November 2010, the Defence, Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee sent DA-Notices to UK newspapers regarding an expected major publication by

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is a non-profit media organisation and publisher of leaked documents. It is funded by donations and media partnerships. It has published classified documents and other media provided by anonymous sources. It was founded in 2006 by ...

of a "huge cache" of United States (US) diplomatic cables.

Index on Censorship Index on Censorship is an organisation campaigning for freedom of expression. It produces a quarterly magazine of the same name from London. It is directed by the non-profit-making Writers and Scholars International, Ltd (WSI) in association wit ...

presented this as part of "a harm minimisation strategy the US government has embarked on

ith The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometers, is the longest line of crags in North Germany. Geography Location The Ith is i ...

an impressive briefing campaign, reaching out to allies across the world."

Overseas influence

Although

was at one time a member, the DSMA committee is as of largely ignored by the global "gatekeeper" technology companies. ''Politico'' has reported that the committee has internally floated the idea of using

OFCOM The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-rang ...

and the provisions of the Online Safety Act to influence these companies.

References

External links