Journalists give evidence to the defence committee over MoD Afghan data breach
04/11/2025 | Independent
Journalists have testified before the House of Commons Defence Committee, criticising the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for using an unprecedented superinjunction to conceal a 2022 personal data breach that potentially endangered over 100,000 Afghans linked to UK forces.
Journalists told MPs that the gagging order created an "Orwellian leap" and "put the democratic process in the deep freeze" for 18 months. The superinjunction prevented the media from reporting the leak and kept Parliament in the dark, effectively containing any scrutiny of the secret resettlement scheme and the risks faced by the affected Afghans.
The Independent's Holly Bancroft stated that the MoD was "very slow" to establish a resettlement scheme, prompting journalists to step in and hold the department accountable. The Times' Larisa Brown added that while pursuing court hearings against the superinjunction, journalists were the only party attempting to hold the government to account, yet they were hindered by being excluded from closed hearings and lacked information on the MoD's justification for the injunction.
The Daily Mail's Sam Greenhill described a moment when the presiding judge was "incredulous" after the MoD issued a statement in Parliament containing selected facts to "control the narrative" regarding the numbers of Afghans arriving in Britain. He stressed that these issues should have been debated in Parliament.
The superinjunction eventually unravelled when a law firm representing hundreds of Afghan clients suing the government revealed the vast effort required to maintain secrecy. The committee's Chair, Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi MP, praised the journalists for their "grit and determination" to expose the chapter, which he said had shocked many parliamentarians.
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