1 Introduction
1. In May 2008 the Home Affairs Committee announced
its intention to investigate the relationship between the police
and the media, in particular:
- The practice of holding off-the-record
briefings during on-going police operations;
- Instances where police forces
have failed to release information to the media; and
- Attempts by police to control
media reporting.
2. Interaction between police forces and journalists
has become more frequent and increasingly professionalised in
recent times. The relationship can often be mutually beneficial,
ensuring the media have access to crime stories, so better to
inform the public, and providing a cost-effective tactic for police
forces to appeal to the public for information to assist their
investigations.
3. However, we considered that some of the less
positive aspects of this relationship warranted examination. We
were concerned to hear accounts of the damaging impact of off-the-record
briefings, particularly during counter-terrorism operations; apparent
media tip-offs about the arrest or questioning of high-profile
suspects in the "cash-for-honours" and "football
bungs" investigations; allegations that some police forces
were attempting to 'spin' crime figures by not releasing information
about individual crimes to the media; and the decision by West
Midlands Police and Crown Prosecution Service to refer the Channel
4 Dispatches programme, Undercover Mosque, to the media
regulator, Ofcom.
4. As a result, on 4 November 2008 we took evidence
from Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty, Jon Silverman, former
BBC home affairs correspondent and Professor in Criminal Justice
and Media at the University of Bedfordshire, Deputy Chief Constable
Andy Trotter, Chair of the Association of Chief Police Officers'
Media Advisory Group, and Deputy Chief Constable Phil Gormley
of the West Midlands Police.
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