DURING the pandemic, among those who continued to turn up for work every day were journalists.  

Reporters, such as those who work at the Hampshire Chronicle, were given key worker status.  

It was deemed important that the flow of information continued, even when the rest of the country was locked down.  

People needed to know what was happening.  

And this is one of the factors that drives journalists to continue in their roles.  

However, last week, something happened that undermines the principle of journalism.  

On Sunday night, thousands of copies of The News – Portsmouth's daily paper - were prevented from leaving its print plant in Essex.  

That meant that on Monday, the shelves at newsagents and supermarkets across the city were bare.  

Yes the digital edition came out as planned, and its team worked continuously on its website and social media, but no paper editions made it to the city – or even the county. 

Being the editor of four local newspapers, I often speak to people who rely on the printed copy of their local newspaper.  

While The News is not owned by the same company as my titles, I have a great affiliation with them having cut my teeth there and worked my way up to business editor.  

The reason the newspapers were held up was due to an environmental protest that was happening nearby.  

Police closed the road for safety reasons, however, they were able to let petrol tankers and grocery lorries through, just not the truck carrying the newspaper.  

A strategic group consisting of police and Thurrock Council representatives deemed news as a non-essential service so the truck was not seen as ‘priority traffic’. 

However, the continued flow of information is vital to people’s lives. 

That particular edition may have led on the music festival Victorious, but it also carried stories on water companies discharging raw sewage into rivers and seas, an independent business closing under cost of living crisis pressures, coverage of the postal strike, court reports, football match reports, and many stories of people doing good in the community.   

The sequence of events has come at a bad time for the publication, as until very recently it was printed at the printing presses in Hilsea.  

These presses opened in 1969 and used to be owned by the same company as the newspaper, but were hit badly by the News of the World ceasing publication after the phone hacking scandal.  

Following that they were sold to the DMG Media (the Daily Mail Group) in October 2020, which continued to operate until last month, when it finally threw in the towel with the backdrop of extraordinary rising prices (print and ink along has risen at an incredible rate this year, not to mention electricity).  

No one can deny that the newspaper would not have been held up if they were still printed in Hilsea, and many online commenters took absolute delight in crowing “it would never of happened if” in mean-spirited, badly-worded, ungrammatical Facebook posts, but that decision was taken a long time ago and is entirely unrelated to the problem presented here – the restriction and suppression of the press.  

The Hampshire Chronicle has been in continuous publication since 1772. Its regularity over the past 250 years is one of its guiding principles. We are here, day in day out, and stand with our city and its people.  

In fact, thankfully only one edition has ever not made the shops – during the 1926 General Strike. 

We have made it through wars, recessions, upheavals and dramas. We proudly shine a light on Winchester.  

The Portsmouth News has also been in continuous publication since 1877. I have personally held and read one of the first ever editions. It is a huge part of Portsmouth.  

In a comment piece, its editor Mark Waldon said: “The News is not just here in times of emergency. Since 1877 we have been informing our readers across our patch of what is happening, giving them the information they need, keeping them entertained and ensuring we play a part in bringing communities together. I need a full explanation into why the police and council officials stopped us from doing that.” 

The newspaper released an online version for free, and by Tuesday, Monday’s papers had also reached the shops (God bless the poor lorry driver).  

But ultimately, it’s a worrying state of affairs when the freedom of the press is threatened. Questions need answering – and assurances need to be given that this will not happen again – at The News or at any other local newspaper.