Study title

Law, Terrorism and the Right to Know (LTRK) was a three year research programme funded by the ESRC and AHRC under the RCUK Global Uncertainties Fellowships in Ideas and Beliefs scheme. The programme explored democratic traditions of media freedom and the contemporary demands of national and international security. It looked especially at the ways governments and courts deal with security related matters, and the relationships between the state and the media. It examined matters such as the ways that different parties involved in controlling access to, and the communication of, information see the relationships between principles of open justice, the rule of law, public accountability and national security. It explored how much and in what ways access to information is closed down and what the effects of this might be. It also aimed to look beyond whether there is a chilling effect in the traditional sense of increased self-censorship, to the broader impact of the legal framework on the ways that information can be selectively and strategically presented or concealed, and the respective roles of the state and the media in these processes. A core component of the work was a series of confidential research interviews. These were conducted over around 18 months in 2010-2012. Interviewees were drawn from the judiciary (with the support of the office of the Lord Chief Justice), government (including the Home Office, Cabinet Office, the Office of Counter-Terrorism and Security, the Ministry of Defence, and specialist units within government), the Association of Chief Police Officers and police forces, the Crown Prosecution Service and criminal defence lawyers, and a range of journalists, media lawyers and editorial decision-makers. Most interviews were done in the UK and the interviewees were from the UK. A small number of interviews were done in the US and Australia with individuals from those countries. The collection includes an explanatory note, the...