New UK Legislation Could See Journalists Prosecuted for Receiving a Press Release, Peer Claims

National Security Bill contains clause on 'aiding a foreign power'

Green Party member Jenny Jones, Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb, poses for a portrait at the "Stop HS2" camp at Euston Station in London on Jan. 31, 2021. Hollie Adams/Getty Images

Journalists who receive “an innocuous press release” could be arrested and prosecuted under new national security legislation going through Parliament, a peer has warned.

In a debate on the National Security Bill in the House of Lords on Wednesday, Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb, a Green Party peer, said, “A lot of journalists and organisations have contacted me expressing serious concern about this national security bill because things are not clear.”