Guardian and FT not welcome: Patel excludes major UK newspapers from trip to Rwanda
Priti Patel’s Home Office reportedly excluded reporters from some of the UK’s biggest newspapers from joining her on a trip to Rwanda.
The Financial Times, Guardian as well as the Mirror were not welcome during Patel’s visit to Kigali earlier this month, when the Home Secretary flew to Africa to sign the much-criticised asylum seekers deal with the Rwandan government.
The Guardian’s Home Affairs editor Rajeev Syal was excluded, causing the paper to accuse Patel of “trying to avoid scrutiny”, saying there was “a pattern of government departments blocking individual journalists,” according to a Press Gazette report.
In the past, Syal has reportedly extensively on the bullying allegations against Patel.
A Guardian spokesperson confirmed: “Despite repeated requests to attend, Home Office delays prevented Guardian reporter Rajeev Syal from attending the trip to Rwanda, seemingly to avoid public scrutiny.”
He added: “We are concerned that Home Office officials are deliberately excluding specific journalists from key briefings and engagements.”
“This is not the first time that officials have tried to place limits on how the press reports on the operation of this government, which sends a worrying signal about the state of press freedom in the UK.”
In addition, a spokesperson for the Financial Times said: “On this occasion our journalists were excluded from the press trip and received minimal briefing.”
He stressed that “It is clearly not good practice to exclude some media from government briefings simply because they are willing to ask difficult questions.”
The Press Gazette reported that no Mirror journalists was offered a place.
The Home Office rejected the notion it tried to avoid scrutiny, as a spokesperson told the Press Gazette: “The Home Office fully adheres to the Government Communication Service Propriety Guidance when dealing with members of the media.”