Lib Dems threaten legal action over Hackney Today ‘propaganda rag’

Is this the end of the Town Hall’s ‘Pravda’? Photograph: Claude Crommelin

Plans to restrict publications like Hackney Today cleared another hurdle this week when they were approved by the House of Lords.

Labour-run Hackney Council publishes Hackney Today fortnightly but is set to be forced to trim this to just four issues per year.

Conservative Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles has branded local authority publications “Town Hall Pravdas”.

Hackney Liberal Democrat spokesperson Tony Harms said Hackney Council is “using a much needed half a million pounds of public money for political purposes”.

Mr Harms added: “That money could be used in the discretionary fund to alleviate benefit cuts in hardship cases.

“And it seriously damages independent criticism in the local press.

“The irony is that the Labour Party have made exactly the same complaints about East End Life, another propaganda rag in Tower Hamlets, but not one of theirs. Once the Bill receives royal assent and if the council ignores the code, we will be looking closely at possible court action.”

Hackney Council says it plans to review its publication arrangements when the new statute passes.

Update at 2.27pm on 23 January 2014:

A council spokesperson said: “We are aware of forthcoming changes to the law which could affect the publication of Hackney Today and when this new statute is passed we will review our publication arrangements.

“We have always told ministers that we would be happy to stop publishing Hackney Today each fortnight if they dropped the requirement to print statutory notices in a newspaper. At present Hackney Today is the most cost effective way of doing this for local taxpayers.”