ITN banned from Joanna Yates press conference

As usual one rule for the printed media and another for TV. The tabloids had that suspect hung, drawn and quartered over the weekend only for him to be release without charge within a couple of days.

The police need to be able to accept criticism and shouldn't be banning sections of the media for it - criticism of their actions does the case little harm at all. It's only when the medias action may hinder the search that such action may be considered necessary IMO.

We will disagree then on how the police handled this matter; but I don't accept the content of the report itself was a matter of interpretation.

This expert on investigative techniques is only a "legitimate source" of criticism if he can point to areas that he knows the police failed to investigate.

By his own words he did not know whether certain items had been taken and "tested for DNA", merely that there were other objects still remaining in the vicinity.

By his own words he did not know whether the police had stopped cars to interview drivers, but said that if they hadn't then they would have been failing to investigate properly.

This was packaged as a "police investigation floundering with mixed signals and lack of direction".

It's a bad day when the press think that speculation passed as fact comes under the banner of "reporting freedom". It doesn't.

I cant be painted as someone who argues against the facts being reported openly - but I'll make a stand when I think its utter hogwash.

Gavin, you know I can’t let you have the last word ...

I realise the ban on ITV News has now been lifted, but the Guardian reported earlier that ITV West had only been allowed into the briefing on condition that it didn’t share the footage with ITV News (ie network news). To me, that just about sums up the attitude and motivation of the police during today’s rather surprising turn of events– essentially throwing a hissy fit by trying to prevent a major news broadcaster from covering a high profile story and stifling any criticism of the police investigation in the process (regardless of how ill-founded that criticism may be). I just don’t see how that helps the police investigation, and very much doubt Avon & Somerset will take such action again. All it does is make journalists feaful of raising contentious issues in future.

If we agree on a closing point, does that mean we can share the last word?

It was definitely a hissy fit. No question of it; and perhaps I have to acknowledge the reaction to it is such as to make their actions look counter-productive, ultimately.

Nonetheless I'm all for a bit of "living in the moment".

Wasn't overly impressed by David Manion's (or his rep's) comment that "the broadcaster was not party to any agreement to run favourable reports to retain access to press briefings."

Disappointing that they see it as a question of "support versus non-support" - I thought it was more about inaccuracy and lack of balance on their part. No lessons learned there, then.

For a multitude of reasons I do hope they catch the perpetrator soon. Easy to lose sight of what an awful event this is, never mind how all this media-added drama makes it worse for the family.

Agreed.

Just to note - there's a report on Newsnight about the ITN ban right now. Some good points being made in a discussion featuring Stuart Purvis (former ITN editor-in-chief) and Ian Blair.

That's a rather synical way of putting it. Every news team will look at what angle they can take with each report, as with nothing new to say, the story goes lower down on the agenda. Someone probably said 'can we see if the investigation is actually being done properly' rather than 'lets try and prove the investigation is a shambles'.

Sorry, what's the difference between what you said and what I said?

I didn't use the word "shambles" - you did.

The gob-on-a-stick was the one who said the police were failing. The editor and reporter should have been more selective about what they put to air - but perhaps they wanted their money's worth.

If that makes me cynical, then I guess I must be.

It's cynical to make it sound like it's just for cheap thrills, when it's just to keep a stale story fresh and still relevant by introducing questions along the lines of 'how's the investigation being handled'.

What baffles me is why the police Press Office apparently didn't respond to ITN's contacts about this story. It sounds (if what has been said so far can be taken on face value) as though they were given right to reply on the accusations before it was broadcast.

Avon and Somerset Police not to report ITV News to Ofcom

Avon & Somerset police today dropped its complaint to Ofcom over an ITV News report which was critical of its investigation into the murder of Joanna Yeates.

Top-level meetings between ITV News and the constabulary resolved the dispute, which resulted in the broadcaster being temporarily banned from its press conferences on the Bristol murder earlier this week.

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07-Jan-2011 @ 18:12