Today Nottinghamshire Live is taking the unusual step of publishing the content of text messages between our reporter and the leader of Reform-led Nottinghamshire County Council, as we continue our battle against a ban on our journalists at the authority.

These messages demonstrate that far from waging a war against the party, we took the same effort we always do to be fair and balanced before publishing the piece that kicked this all off.

As a reminder, we wrote a story about the important upcoming council decision on local government reorganisation, including a claim that some councillors would be suspended if they did not back leader Mick Barton's preference on the issue.

Reform UK at the national level have been remarkably quiet up until now on the unprecedented ban issued by their councillors against us. But in recent days, deputy leader Richard Tice has made certain comments about our journalism which cannot go without a firm rebuttal.

Tice has labelled Nottinghamshire Live an "activist" organisation which has acted in "a way of activism against Reform". He also said that the ban was justified '"if a certain media organisation distorts and completely acts in an irresponsible way".

We would not normally reveal conversations about stories with politicians behind the scenes, but feel we have been forced into this position to correct the public smears on our team of journalists.

Mick Barton, the Reform leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, confirmed he was issuing the ban against Nottinghamshire Live, our print counterpart the Nottingham Post and the team of Local Democracy Reporters we manage on Tuesday (August 26). The ban means our reporters will be banned from interviews with Councillor Barton or any of his 40 colleagues.

Councillor Barton has also told the county council to stop sending us press releases and to stop inviting us to anything. This ban - criticised since it was issued by campaigners for press freedom, former

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