Here at openDemocracy, we are no stranger to smears from politicians. MPs have intentionally spread inaccuracies about our journalism. They have accused us of acting in bad faith. They have even tried to sue us into silence.
But in March last year, for the first time that I can recall, a sitting British cabinet minister attacked our journalism in an official government statement.
Michael Gove – in a letter headed with the Queen’s insignia – declared that openDemocracy’s revelations about the existence of a secretive Freedom of Information ‘Clearing House’ in his Cabinet Office was “ridiculous and tendentious”.
