Eurasia Press & News
Press freedom groups condemn organiser’s last minute decision to deny Declassified entry.
A major arms fair has been criticised by press freedom groups for refusing to let Declassified enter the event, which is being held for the first time since Labour took power.
The biennial Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) trade show is hosting over 50 Israeli companies this week at London’s sprawling ExCel Centre, despite cancelling plans for an Israeli government pavilion.
Exhibitors include Rafael, a missile manufacturer wholly owned by the Israeli state, and private weapons firm Elbit, which supplies 85% of drones used in Gaza.
It marks the first time Declassified has been denied media accreditation, having attended the last two DSEI events.
Those took place under Conservative governments in 2023 and 2021, when we questioned defence ministers about arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
Reporters Without Borders said the decision to block Declassified this year was “worrying”, “anti-democratic” and “suggests there is something to hide.”
When Declassified was allowed to enter DSEI in 2021, event spokesman General Roddy Porter claimed: “We’ve got nothing to hide here. This is a legitimate government transactional business.”
DSEI is organised by the company Clarion Events but relies on close cooperation from the UK’s Ministry of Defence, Foreign Office and trade department.
Defence secretary John Healey and military chief Richard Knighton are due to give keynote speeches at the event.
Both men were recently doorstepped by Declassified and questioned over their intelligence support for Israel, which might explain DSEI’s decision to block access.
Clarion provided no reason for its refusal, emailing Declassified at 4.30pm yesterday to say “we regret to inform you that we are unable to accept your registration”.
Declassified had registered back in April and repeatedly chased the organiser. Solomon Hughes, an investigative journalist with Private Eye magazine, was also denied access.
‘Anti-democratic’
Fiona O’Brien, UK director of Reporters Without Borders, said: “It is worrying to hear that journalists have been refused accreditation to a major arms fair without an explanation.
“This denial of access is part of a wider trend we’ve observed in the UK, as people in positions of power increasingly seek to pick and choose who reports on their actions in the hope of skewing coverage in their favour.
“Let’s be clear: restricting the press is anti-democratic. It is absolutely right that one of the world’s biggest arms fairs should be open to media scrutiny, and to deny access to some journalists only suggests there is something to hide.”
Jamie Wiseman from the International Press Institute (IPI), a global media freedom organisation based in Vienna, said: “The last minute refusal of media accreditation for Declassified UK to attend the DSEI in London, given the day before the start of the event without any justification or explanation, represents a clear and discriminatory obstruction of press freedom.
“IPI calls on the organisers of the DSEI UK 2025 to immediately review the decision, grant access to all professional media representatives, and to demonstrate greater respect both for transparency and the work of independent journalists reporting on the defence industry.”
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the venue and heckled arms dealers on their way in as police aggressively shoved the crowd.
Emily Apple from Campaign Against Arms Trade said the protesters were “attempting to uphold international law” and suggested the police “should investigate the war criminals exhibiting inside for crimes against humanity.”
Leigh Evans, a Welsh nurse who has been to Gaza four times and was protesting outside DSEI, told Declassified “it’s an industry of murder”.
Describing the impact of modern drones and missiles in Gaza, Evans said: “What they call collateral damage are grandmothers, grandfathers, children in playgrounds…[in] the initial impact zone, you have vapourised people who are literally like slurry on the ground.
“Then you get people that have literally been killed by the blast and blown to pieces. And then around that is the most shocking, because you get people who are in shock, because they’ve lost limbs and they’re shaking and screaming on the ground.
“The smell of blood – the smell is like petrol – and the smell of faeces, because the blasts have caused people to release their bowels…but it’s the shaking and it’s the panic and it’s the lack of the ability to comprehend what has happened to the body because it has suffered major trauma is what sticks with me.”
Israel has killed more than 64,000 Palestinians in Gaza during the last two years, including 248 journalists. Foreign media are banned from entering the besieged strip.
