Afghan superinjunction left democracy in 'deep freeze'

The Independent's Holly Bancroft among journalists who gave evidence to the Commons defence select committee

- HARRY COCKBURN

The previous government has been accused of an “Orwellian leap” in the use of a gagging order to cover up a massive data leak that potentially put the lives of more than 100,000 Afghans at risk.

The democratic process was “put in the deep freeze” for 18 months, journalists told MPs on the House of Commons defence committee yesterday as they gave evidence over the saga.

The superinjunction used by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) followed the February 2022 leak of details of thousands of Afghans, who feared they were in danger from the Taliban because of their links to UK forces and wanted to apply for sanctuary in Britain.

The unprecedented global superinjunction not only prevented the media from reporting on the leak, but also kept parliament in the dark, with the result that there was no scrutiny of a secret resettlement scheme which brought thousands of Afghans to Britain.

This meant journalists working to understand the life and death implications of the data breach were unable to report on the leak, while MPs could not debate the government’s stance and the Afghans whose data had been leaked remained at risk of reprisals from the Taliban.

The Independent’s home affairs correspondent Holly Bancroft told MPs: “In terms of response to the [data] breach itself, [the MoD] was very slow in terms of setting up a resettlement scheme, how many people you’re going to help.” “Part of why we got involved was that it took four or five months from the breach actually happening to them saying ‘we’re going to help 150 people’, this was so slow. We felt compelled to get involved in order to hold the MoD to account in whatever it was they were going to do.”

Larisa Brown, defence editor at