The Defence and Security Media Advisory Committee is a British advisory body established in 2015 which oversees a voluntary code which operates between the government departments which have responsibility for national security and the media.
History
Preceding organisations:
Admiralty, War Office and Press Committee, 1912–1919. An Assistant Secretary of the War Office and Mr. Robbins, the representative of the Press Association, were joint Secretaries. Letters, or telegrams, were sent to editors when agreed. They came to be known as "Parkers" after Mr. Parke who was then the representative of the Newspaper Proprietors' Association on the Committee. This evolved into the D-Notice system.
Admiralty, War Office, Air Ministry and Press Committee, 1919–1939.
Admiralty, War Office, Air Ministry and Press Committee, 1945–1967. Admiral George Thompson, who had been the Chief Press Censor during the war, became the Secretary of the committee in 1945.
Services, Press and Broadcasting Committee c.1967–1993. Vice Admiral Sir Norman Denning was appointed Secretary in 1967.
Defence, Press and Broadcasting Committee, 1993–2015.
The records of the committees are held in the British National Archives. The Defence, Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee issued DA-Notices from 1993 to 2015. The secretary was a former two-star military officer employed from a Ministry of Defence budget and is housed by them and the committee is made up of senior civil servants and representatives of national media organisations.
Membership
The committee consisted of five government representatives and 16 media representatives. The five government positions on the committee were all ex officio - the chairman being the current Permanent Under Secretary of the Ministry of Defence. The 2nd Permanent Under Secretary of the Ministry of Defence, the Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary, the Permanent Under Secretary of the Home Office and the Deputy Under Secretary from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office were the other officers. The Vice Chairman was chosen by the press members from among their number. The media representatives were nominated by the following organisations:
