Spotlight 10 Informed


journalists. Police officers viewed journalists with deep suspicion, the report found. It noted that Baroness Casey’s review of the Met Police last year found 93 per cent of officers blamed “negative media coverage” for the force’s deteriorating public reputation rather than murder, rape and other crimes commited by their colleagues. Te study cited comments by Steve Hartshorn, chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales, who last year told rank and file officers: “I genuinely believe the public see through the negativity of the British media, whose obsession appears to be to reflect the bad and worst in society at the expense of the good.” Rebecca Camber, chair of the Crime Reporters Association, told Informed: “Somewhere along the line they have lost sight that the media can be, not a hindrance but, an actual help and that it is a vital relationship for the sake of our democracy.” Te report calls for urgent revision of


Police and the media


‘Te relationship between the press and police is broken’ a major new report concludes as new cases emerge of journalists harassed and spied on by officers, Ian Burrell reports


Te Police and Te Media report, which makes 26 recommendations to help “rebuild” this “vital relationship”, is the result of months of work by the Crime Reporters Association, the Society of Editors and the Media Lawyers Association. It was prompted by the debacle of


last year’s Nicola Bulley investigation when a police information vacuum was filled by conspiracy theorists and social media “detectives”, some of whom posed as journalists and gatecrashed press conferences. Te report finds many police press officers are unwilling to discuss cases by phone with reporters and no longer provide press office phone numbers on force websites. Interviews with victims or investigating officers are sometimes being conducted and filmed by police press officers, rather than independent


College of Policing counter-corruption guidelines which identify journalists as a threat, alongside terrorists, other criminals and suspects. “An entire generation of police officers – from PC right up to Chief Constable – have come through the ranks thinking that if you speak to the media they are a corruption risk,” said Camber. Tis fractured relationship, in part


an over-reaction by police forces to the Leveson report of 2012, is being played out at the scenes of crimes, accidents and protests across the UK. Xander Elliards, a reporter on Scotish


daily Te National, was grabbed by a police officer as the journalist was filming on a public street in Glasgow during a pro-Palestinian protest in May. Te police officer told Elliards that he had no right to film “just because you are a press officer (sic)”. Nick McGowan-Lowe, national


organiser of NUJ Scotland, said it was not an isolated incident. “Our research shows there are still police officers who


Mat Kenyon


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