Hackney Council threatens legal action to censor independent community news site's coverage of election bungles

Hackney residents refused permission to vote

Disgraced local authority Hackney Council are today in the spotlight over their disastrous mishandling of yesterday’s general election, which saw voters being turned away from polling stations, unable to vote, due to inadequate provision of resources.

But there is another outrageous story which has, so far, been overshadowed. Not only did Hackney Council falsely and repeatedly claim to voters that there was no Conservative candidate standing in the local mayoral elections taking place on the same day – they are threatening legal action against a courageous local indpendent community news website that has dared to report the story, and published a damning audio recording of a council official making these false claims.

From the Hackney Citizen

Hackney Council has today written to Hackney Citizen asking us to remove two audio recordings from our website.

The audio clips are recordings of a Hackney Council employee wrongly informing a caller that there was no Conservative party candidate standing in the Hackney Mayoral election.

The Council says that it will apply for an injunction and its legal costs if we do not comply with its request forthwith.

We take the view that it is in the public interest to disclose the way the Council was dealing with the issue, as evidenced by the audio clips.

The recordings remain on our website here.

The letter to Hackney Citizen from Hackney Council’s legal department is reproduced below.

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