to think that no matter what your political persuasion, the Government of the day should hold themselves up to journalistic scrutiny

[chomalungma]

And not refuse to appear on programs like Radio 4 Today. Now it seems like they are trying to challenge the lobby system.

Nice to see the journalists sticking together.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/03/political-journalists-boycott-no-10-briefing-after-reporter-ban

Trump has stopped having daily briefings in the Press room.

The Government shouldn't be afraid of being asked difficult questions.
And that goes for Labour as well.

No side should be scared of the media.

Virus outbreak.
No Minister on Today

Terrorist attack.
No Minister on Today

It seems they are also boycotting Good Morning Britain as well - but I don't watch that Are they scared of Piers Morgan?

Yanbu at all and I'm amazed there's not more being made of it. Very scary times.

This is very very worrying indeed. When coupled with the way this government has treated the judiciary and unlawfully prorogued parliament, we should be extremely concerned.

Well Johnston refused to be interviewed by andrew neil and dodged some of the debates so this really shouldn’t have surprised me...

It did obviously surprise me cos honestly pulling a stunt like this shouldn’t happen anywhere

I wonder what it will take for scrutiny to happen?

Very worrying times. We are sleepwalking into this.
So pleased the other journalists walked out.

I'm watching Sky News, I'm surprised it's not been discussed, as Beth Rigby was one of the ones who walked out. I'm hoping they discuss it on review of the papers

Right it's on the cover of the i, so they will be discussing it. But my tablet is about to die, so I can't post again tonight

Yanbu, we are sleep walking into a dictatorship.

There are plenty of other outlets than the now mediocre Today programme. Their editor has just resigned,there are job cuts galore at BBC, the govt have understandable issues with the programme ( + other BBC political shows) taking a biased/ non neutral stance on both Brexit and the last GE.
Ofcom already reprimanded them for their lack of neutrality a couple of years ago, so this refusal to appear on their shows should not be a surprise to BBC.

Govt have plenty of other media outlets, particularly social media and other (terrestrial ) channels. It's not as if the BBC are the sole purveyors of news or political accountability, and they are not somehow entitled to "first dibs" (as it were ).

the govt have understandable issues with the programme ( + other BBC political shows) taking a biased/ non neutral stance on both Brexit and the last GE

For biased - you mean asking difficult questions?

Not like the old days when the Ministers used to tell the people what they were doing and that was it....

Govt have plenty of other media outlets, particularly social media

Many people still get their news from the BBC and ITV. Social media is still a niche way.

Seems even the Daily Mail reporter walked out as well.

Reported in the Mail but not on the BBC website......

I think the issue with bbc being biased is that the tax payer shouldn’t be paying for it. You expect a better quality of service when it’s tax payer funded. Making cuts here is quite different to the issue in the article. But that aside YANBU, it’s completely unacceptable to ban journalists from large publications (even if you think they’re crap or biased or whatever) from an official briefing.

Also, have you watched any old political interviews, some of them are fantastic, the reporters are asking real questions rather than leading crap designed to make things awkward but not actually uncovering anything interesting or worthwhile. Journalism has nosedived.

@HauntedSocks yes I agree.