Government changes to the twice-daily briefings are straight out of a dangerous US playbook
![The Westminster lobby system is at the heart of a press freedom fight | Jane Martinson](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/14db3372273b9d4e153e9f83807481867e2cb71e/0_365_5472_3283/master/5472.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctb3BpbmlvbnMucG5n&enable=upscale&s=25b1c1018e02ce6d15a74c6f7424d295)
Lobby is not the best word to associate with journalism. As a noun it’s a room which is inside and yet not; as a verb it stands for trying to influence politicians. Yet the “lobby system” in parliamentary reporting, a relic of the 19th century, is now at the centre of a very 21st century fight for press freedom.
The government’s move to change the location of the traditional twice-daily briefing system, from the Commons to 9 Downing Street, is hardly the most egregious insult lobbed at journalists from a government that has already banned newspapers from its campaign bus, spurned a flagship
BBC news programme and threatened to review Channel 4’s remit because it refused to do its bidding.