Oakeshott gave evidence + statement to Sunday Times in Nov 2017.
This is letter from editor Martin Ivens. He’s left but @ShippersUnbound is still there. Does he know what happened? Can new editor @EmmaTuckerST find out?
Did Oakeshott change mind? Did govt ministers intervene?
Theresa May got it. She tried to warn us. Listen to this speech again. She said it all here.
She called Putin’s invasion of Crimea what it was. She calls out ‘election meddling’. And its attacks on our information space.
Her cabinet colleagues - Johnson & Williamson - didn’t.
Johnson was asked about Russian interference by @RhonddaBryant just 2 weeks earlier. ‘Not a sausage,’ he replied.
This is not true. Theresa May isn’t just calling out Putin in that speech. She’s calling out her own foreign minister.
Johnson’s failure to take action against Russian £ even now is a national security risk & we need to know what happened in Nov 2017 when FBI revealed London investigation, when Theresa May warned us, when Sun Times spiked explosive scoop.
Where was NCA? Where was MI5/6?
Britain’s national security apparatus was paralysed by a failure of leadership. The Russia Report told us that explicitly. And our political leadership was paralysed by Brexit.
I think @theresa_may got it. And I suspect she has answers.
The evidence suggests Johnson directly involved in covering up Russian interference. New docs I published yesterday reveal Williamson’s involvement.
This is photo of Johnson in Congress with Mifsud who head of FBI called ‘a Russian agent of influence’
Will Sunday Times tell us why it spiked its story? I hope so. It had explosive story about Brexit funder as 'Russian agent of influence' 3 days after Theresa May's speech on Russia dominated the front pages.
We know Johnson had already tried to bury the story once. Did he again?
Why did Arron Banks state on oath that Wigmore gave emails to Sunday Times in June 2018? When ST editor confirms he has them in Nov 2017?
Nov 14, 2017: Theresa May dominates front pages with speech saying Russia has attacked our elections.
Nov 17, 2017: Sunday Times indemnifies Oakeshott over explosive story of Brexit funder as "Russian agent of influence"
Nov 19, 2017: This is Sunday Times front page.
To be clear, I am not trying to lay blame with Sunday Times or even Oakeshott. I don't know what happened. There were other forces at work here at highest levels of govt.
But I do think @ShippersUnbound & others can help expose what happened here. And hope they will.
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The targeting & killing of journalists in Gaza & the failure of the media to show collective solidarity & to take collective action is…incomprehensible.
I feel a such profound sense of shame & failure. It’s not just the death of journalists. It’s the death of journalism. 1/
This is Mariam Abu Daka, one of 3 journalists killed in latest strike, warning that journalists are being deliberately targeted & killed.
‘The Israeli occupation targets journalists because they tell the truth’
She calls for urgent international protection. It did not come. 2/
It is not that there has not been efforts to mobilise a collective response by press freedom orgs, including @RSF_inter, but there has also been silence , denial & cowardice from the prestige legacy outlets.
There’s a reason trust in all media is plummeting.
3/
Nick Clegg made a reported £100m from Facebook. And now the reputation laundering begins.
Congrats to him on this magnificent PR coup. Nicely played, Clegg. A glossy magazine profile AND extract in the paper that created the Facebook PR crisis that led to his hiring.
1/
It’s an abject reminder of how mainstream outlets are played by Silicon Valley, by the cosy rules of access journalism & the genre framing of the celeb interview.
Clegg never submitted to a proper interview in his time at Facebook & now gets to spin & whitewash & conceal all while still under a FB NDA.
2/
I understand why this was commissioned. The need for a culturally relevant ‘name’. The fact that many people will ‘hate-read’ it. It will get traffic.
But it also reinforces an impression that so many people have that the media is broken. Clicks & traffic & holding power to account are such competing incentives.
3/
Earlier this year, I lost my beloved job at my beloved Observer when the Guardian, in its great wisdom, gave the newspaper away to a podcast company...who promptly sacked me.
So, forgive my delight today, in being nominated for FIVE awards in the British Podcast Awards!! 1/
Huge kudos to super producers @RuthAbrahams5 of Sergei & the Westminster Spy Ring & @GeorgiaJCatt & @ByrnesyGsy for Stalked.
Plus the brilliant & brave Hannah Mossman-Moore & Sergei Cristo 👏 👏 👏. Both FEARLESS in completely different ways.
But mostly, thanks for listening... & in Sergei's case for crowdfunding it. Incredible to be nominated alongside all the big companies for our indie DIY affair. Thanks also to @peterjukes for galvanising & dramaturgy.
And to BBC Sounds for being so punchy in naming Hannah's stalker
3/
BUT it upheld 2/3 points inc that foreign interference (inc disinfo) *is* a threat to fair elections (which UK had denied!)
Lawyers say hugely significant judgement with far-reaching consequences. AND that an appeal should be considered
1/
Here's the meat of the judgement. The court upheld the first two points. It only refused the third and final point.
The legal team said they were amazed by how far the court had gone in upholding the bulk of their arguments, and that the ruling opens the door to many other potential cases.
2/
The court agreed there were 'shortcomings in the Government's initial response'.
But it bought the UK's defence that a) it had already investigated foreign interference and b) it has put in place new legislative protections since. 4/
Today, the Observer ‘transfers’ to Tortoise Media, a process that involved neither journalists nor readers.
This is 100+ journalists being ‘banged out’ of the Guardian offices, an old Fleet Street custom that’s usually a jolly occasion. This felt more like a medieval damnation.
Journalism is a team sport. And that’s it. The entire @ObsNewReview editorial team is gone! Female-led, female dominated, the entire commissioning team, art director, production staff & photo editor.
My journalistic home for 20 years…totally destroyed.
See the embedded thread. I don’t even think the Guardian management & board have any idea of what they’ve lost.
NEW: My piece for the Observer on how I was so deep into my investigation into Cambridge Analytica that I failed to realise that Hannah - my ex's daughter - was facing a human version of it: a stalker who was harvesting her data and weaponising it against her. 1/ theguardian.com/world/2025/mar…
I write about how I finally realised the scale of what was happening to Hannah, how comprehensively the police had failed her & how another woman, from the same class as her at the same school had also had a stalker, Alice Ruggles. Her stalker had murdered her. 2/
Hannah had 9 different characters harassing her, including 'Premium Escorts' purporting to sell her services & folders of evidence. I was overwhelmed by my own trials but I landed on the idea of emailing Georgia Catt, the brilliant producer of a podcast series I'd loved, The Missing Cryptoqueen
3/