Media Confidential Labour Together’s snooping operation on journalists
Feb 19, 2026
A deep dive into claims that a political thinktank commissioned a PR firm to dig up material on investigative journalists and passed it to security services. Discussion of alleged personal attacks, partisan PR tactics and the risk to press freedom. Coverage of high-profile libel litigation, courtroom reporting decline and how major newsrooms face tougher legal and resource pressures.
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Thinktank Commissioned Personal Dossier On Reporters
- Labour Together commissioned APCO to dig into journalists investigating its funding, producing deeply personal material.
- The dossier was handed to GCHQ, raising chilling questions about targeting reporters and politicised intelligence referrals.
Personal Details And Implicating Motivations
- The APCO report included intrusive details like religion and background and implied foreign-state links to journalists' motives.
- Alan Rusbridger and Lionel Barber describe this as a slur and an escalation beyond routine PR opposition to reporting.
PR Firms Used To Undermine Journalists
- Lionel Barber recalls encountering PR firms producing material to undermine journalists during his FT editorship.
- He notes such 'black PR' has been used to cast aspersions on reporters' motives across Fleet Street.