The secretary was a former two-star military officer employed from a Ministry of Defence budget and is housed by them (although technically independent) and the committee is made up of senior civil servants and representatives of national media organisations.
The media representatives were nominated by the following organisations:[4] On 25 November 2010, the Defence, Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee sent DA-Notices to UK newspapers[6] regarding an expected major publication by WikiLeaks of a "huge cache" of United States (US) diplomatic cables.
[6] Index on Censorship presented this as part of "a harm minimisation strategy the US government has embarked on [with] an impressive briefing campaign, reaching out to allies across the world.
"[6] Although Google was at one time a member, the DSMA committee is as of 2024[update] largely ignored by the global "gatekeeper" technology companies.
[5] Politico has reported that the committee has internally floated the idea of using OFCOM and the provisions of the Online Safety Act to influence these companies.