John Pring is an experienced journalist, who has been reporting on disability issues for nearly 20 years.
John Pring is an experienced journalist, who has been reporting on disability issues for nearly 20 years. He launched the Disability News Service (DNS) in April 2009 to provide in-depth reporting on issues that affect the lives of people with disabilities.
John Pring is highly regarded by fellow journalists, his work is seen as very valuable, and many disability groups rely on DNS to keep them informed.
In the last few years, DNS has done an excellent job of monitoring the numerous issues around welfare reform, making frequent enquiries to the Department for Work and Pensions and probing beneath the surface of official press office communications. It has been a model of investigative journalism, striving for transparency and accountability in an area of government policy which directly affects the lives of people with disabilities. Recently however, the DWP threatened to refuse to communicate with Pring unless he changed his method of working.
The DWP often fails to provide comment on a story until after the DNS deadline, and has demanded that when they do provide a late response, Pring must update his published stories accordingly.
Pring has pointed out that if he was to do so, he would also have to alert every one of the agency’s subscribers with updates every time a comment arrived after deadline, as well as offering the service demanded by DWP to every other organisation and individual that had been asked to comment on a story that week.
Pring, who is himself disabled, said: “I have made it clear – repeatedly – to the DWP press office that to take on the extra workload of continually updating my subscribers throughout the week with developments on old stories, in addition to producing the next week’s stories, could have an adverse impact on my mental health and even make it impossible to continue with DNS.”
Despite this, the DWP has now carried out its threat to refuse to co-operate with DNS. When approached for a comment on the fact that the Information Commissioner is investigating the DWP’s failure to provide information on its reviews of benefits-related deaths, a spokesperson said, “Thanks for the opportunity to comment on your forthcoming peer review story but, as discussed previously, we won’t be offering any responses to DNS articles until we can agree on working practices.”
Pring said: “Although this is not the way a typical news agency would operate, I do work alone, I have a mental health condition, I am extremely careful with my research, and I believe I behave responsibly in the way I operate, often working more than 80 hours a week to ensure my stories are properly researched and factual.
“I therefore think it is reasonable for me to ask DWP to allow DNS to continue to operate in the way it has done – with some success and no similar threats from any other organisation in more than six years – to avoid the risk of my mental health deteriorating further.”
The DWP’s attitude towards John Pring and DNS seems unreasonable and entirely at odds with its own ‘Disability Confident’ campaign, which proclaims the DWP is working “to remove barriers, increase understanding and ensure that disabled people have the opportunities to fulfill their potential and realise their aspirations.” It also threatens a service which many people with disabilities value, and depend upon to stay informed about issues that directly affect their lives.
It is to be hoped that the DWP will reconsider its position.
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© Bernadette Meaden has written about political, religious and social issues for some years, and is strongly influenced by Christian Socialism, liberation theology and the Catholic Worker movement. She is an Ekklesia associate and regular contributor. You can follow her on Twitter: @BernaMeaden