The impact of the Lockdown Files on journalism, with Cablegate journalist James Ball

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One story has been all over the British press lately: The Telegraph's Lockdown Files.

A series of stories have been published based on leaked WhatsApp group messages sent by former health secretary Matt Hancock to his Conservative peers during the coronavirus pandemic. 

There is controversy over the way the journalist Isabel Oakeshott got her hands on the material though. She got access to the messages through a ghostwriting book deal with Hancock and broke a non-disclosure agreement - a legally binding confidentiality agreement between two parties - to publish the messages to the world, implicating many other politicians in the process. 

She has been adamant, and even quite combative in her position, that she was acting in the public interest. She has repeated the lines that she is "willing to take a kicking" for her methods - trouble is, she might not be the only one affected.

In this week’s podcast, we are joined by James Ball, the global editor of The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, who many will know as the journalist closely involved in one of the most legendary cases of whistleblowing: Cablegate by Wikileaks.

We will be talking about the implications of the Lockdown Files for journalism at large: the potential knock-on effect on the trust of sources and audiences, and the precedent this could have if Matt Hancock decides to go to court.

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