The Telegraph has uncovered the revelation that the “independent” group of scientists that regularly criticises the Government for not introducing tougher Covid-19 restrictions is being run by a body that boasts that it is “good at creating havoc” and was founded by an activist journalist accused of peddling conspiracy theories about Brexit.
The news uncovered by the Telegraph paints a remarkably interesting reality, ‘The Citizens’, founded by Carole Cadwalladr, describes itself as “founders and producers” of Independent Sage, a committee of academics that claims to “provide independent scientific advice”.
The group is also currently bringing legal action over ministers’ use of apps such as WhatsApp to communicate about official business, and claims to be gathering evidence of “the privatisation of the NHS”.
Writing in the body’s newsletter, Ms Cadwalladr states that its “mission is impact journalism” and says that it has “been running a handful of experimental projects in stealth mode”, including Independent Sage.
The group’s role was highlighted by an NHS doctor who said there was “something quite disingenuous about a supposedly independent scientific group being formed by what appears to be a political organisation”.
“If you want to lobby against a government, fine,” the doctor said. “But don’t also claim to be an objective, independent voice.”
Independent Sage claimed to have been founded because of a lack of “openness and transparency” by the official Sage committee of government advisors.
Members of the group have become major critics of the governments approach to Covid-19, including decisions to ease lockdown restrictions.
It was financed using money provided by a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for her investigations into pro-Brexit figures, including Arron Banks, the co-founder of the unofficial Leave.EU campaign, who is suing Ms Cadwalladr for libel.
Ms Cadwalladr, who carried out investigations into the role of Cambridge Analytica, a data firm, in the Brexit campaign, has previously apologised for falsely claiming that Mr Banks had been found to have broken the law.
She has also been labelled a conspiracy theorist over her claims that the Russian Federation influenced the 2016 referendum.
The Citizens’ Twitter biography states: “Public service journalism. Founders & producers of @independentSAGE & @FBOversight.”
The Real Facebook Oversight Board is another panel set up by The Citizens. On Tuesday, The Citizens tweeted: “We are a new and still tiny non-profit organisation but we are already good at creating havoc.”
The Tweet was later deleted after being highlighted by the NHS doctor who has challenged the groups independent legitimacy.
In a newsletter on May 17, Ms Cadwalladr wrote of The Citizens: “Our mission is impact journalism and for the last 12 months, we’ve been running a handful of experimental projects in stealth mode: challenging the government’s claim to be ‘following the science’ in the pandemic, launching an emergency intervention against Facebook ahead of the US election, organising MPs to take the government to court and investigating the awarding of government contracts to high-profile Conservative donors.”
Ms Cadwalladr claimed the links between Independent Sage and The Citizens had been “on the organisation’s website since Day 1.”
“I’m incredibly proud of what the Citizens has done to support the work of the scientists on Independent Sage & the impact it has had,” she tweeted.
A spokesman for Independent Sage said the body had nothing to add to Ms Cadwalladr’s remarks.
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Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century. Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.
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