The secret court that silenced The News Agents...until now

For nearly two years the government has taken The News Agents and other journalists to a secret court to prevent us from reporting a story of huge public interest.

In August 2023 Lewis was told of a massive data breach at the Ministry of Defence - a dataset including the names and contact details of 18000 applicants to the ARAP programme, the scheme for Afghans who had helped the British armed forces in the 20 year war in the country.

These people were already at risk of reprisal from the Taliban and now their details were out there, provided courtesy, in effect, of the British government. Including family members, nearly 100,000 people were affected. This led to a constitutionally unprecedented super-injunction, where the government forbade us from reporting the story, under threat of prison.

We can now finally tell you the full extraordinary story as to what has happened - The News Agents were the only media organisation there every step of the way, in a case of huge importance to our politics, to the thousands of Afghans affected - and potentially to the way our democracy works in the years to come.

Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall – three of the UK’s top journalists – host an award-winning daily news podcast: The News Agents.

They’re not just here to tell you what's happening, but why. Expect astute analysis and explanation of the day's news – and a healthy dose of scepticism and the ability to laugh at it all when needed.

Episodes are available every weekday afternoon. You can listen to The News Agents on Alexa, just say "Alexa ask Global Player to play The News Agents"

The News Agents is a Global Player Original podcast.

For advertising opportunities on this podcast email: [email protected]

And The News Agents now have merch! Click here to buy yours now: https://store.global.com/collections/the-news-agents

• No. of episodes: 855
• Latest episode: 2025-07-16
• News Daily News Politics

Where can you listen?