View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
January 19, 2006updated 22 Nov 2022 5:59pm

News groups attack Met’s handling of media after London bombings

By Press Gazette

By Lou Thomas

National news
organisations have criticised the speed at which the Metropolitan
police issued advice to the media and the quality of information about
fatalities following the 7 July London bombings.

The Met was also criticised by journalists giving evidence to the
London Assembly’s 7 July Review Committee for threatening to place
newspapers in contempt of court for publishing photographs of the
bombed carriages that were broadcast in the US following the attack.

Editorial
director of LBC News Jonathan Richards said: “The confusion occurred
because the official police advice was: ‘Stay where you are, don’t move
around London.’ The police advice should have been updated a bit
quicker. If there is one, the next attack could be of a different
nature, and time could be more critical.”

Richards added that
fatalities weren’t mentioned officially until journalists started
reporting them. He said: “One of the strongest moments for our
listeners was when our reporters said a policeman came rushing up and
said ‘Get back, I’m clearing bodies off the track.'”

The 7/7
attacks saw news organisations inundated with photographs from the
public of the attack. The BBC alone received 50 images within an hour
of the first of the four bombs exploding.

Home news editor of The
Times, Oliver Wright, said: “We did get in huge trouble when images of
the Underground came out from the US, because the response from the Met
was you can’t use these, if you do you’ll be in contempt of court under
the Terrorism Act.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

“It was a blanket ban that unfortunately for
them fell apart in a few hours, which perhaps wasn’t the most
successful response to the fact the pictures were out there on
broadcast on ABC and on the internet.”

Wright also added that there were complaints about how the QE2 conference centre, was set up for print journalists.

He
said: “Journalists were told that they couldn’t stay there after 6pm
and there wasn’t a Met press officer there at all times, which given
that the Met has quite a large press office, you wouldn’t have thought
difficult. Part of the problem was that rooms were being booked out
commercially and people were being moved on. The QE2 was one point of
contact that didn’t always work.”

But Sky News associate editor
Simon Bucks said: “The relationship has improved over the years. I
think the police did a bloody good job.”

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network