Overview

• Council leader Mick Barton instructed 41 Reform councillors to refuse interviews, remove Nottinghamshire Live from media lists and event invites, and issue statements only in emergencies such as flooding or school incidents.
• The order also covers BBC-funded Local Democracy Reporting Service journalists managed by the outlet, limiting syndicated reporting used by other local media.
• Editors say the cutoff followed coverage of proposed local government reorganisation that reported alleged internal pressure on councillors, after relations were strained by a viral June interview clip.
• Former county leaders from Conservative and Labour administrations, the Society of Editors, and the National Union of Journalists condemned the move and urged its reversal.
• Liberal Democrats called on Nigel Farage to intervene and cited possible breaches of expectations to submit to scrutiny, while Reform MP Lee Anderson said he would join the boycott and Reform UK declined to comment.