View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
April 11, 2001updated 17 May 2007 11:30am

Press resists calls to wear name badges at inquests

By Press Gazette

Neil Hyde

 

A Reading coroner’s request to journalists to wear press badges "prominently" when they attend inquests so that bereaved relatives know the press are present is being strongly resisted by local media.

Dr AJ Pim has issued a letter to journalists telling them that, at a meeting on 13 March, he heard a member of a bereavement support group speak of "the considerable distress caused to relatives by seeing personal details in print in the local paper". Coroners’ officers, he said, normally advise that the press would be attending the inquest, but added: "I suspect that that fact is then forgotten."

Dr Pim added: "I cannot stop you publishing material presented during the course of the inquest but I am suggesting that it is reasonable to ensure that you wear your press badges prominently while within the civic centre. In this way, relatives will know whom they are speaking with."

The reaction from Ian Francis, deputy editor of the Reading Evening Post, was simply: "We would not adhere to it under any circumstances.  We can see no good reason for it. It is a public place and the press have got a right to report on the proceedings.

"In terms of journalistic safety, it would put journalists in jeopardy if they went round with ‘press’ tattooed on them.

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

"We are not McDonald’s workers; we don’t have to have our name on what we wear.

"Most people are aware that press do cover proceedings and we would always make ourselves known to relatives if we were going to approach them anyway."

He viewed it as "another encroachment on reporters trying to report courts and inquests".

Adrian Seal, editor of the Reading Chronicle, said: "My journalists don’t have press badges so it is a little bit

difficult. Obviously our journalists would always make it quite clear that they were doing this for the paper."

Neil Hyde, boss of the Reading-based INS news agency, was adamant: "No journalist who works for me would ever interview anybody without telling them who they were in the first place."

He, too, thinks wearing a badge would make journalists a target for harassment: "I would be against it totally. Sitting at inquests without name badges has worked perfectly well in the past. We would resist it quite strongly."

He also stressed inquests were public hearings into the cause and reasons for a death.

"There has been some difficulty in the past in making sure all details come out," Hyde pointed out. "The police nowadays are reticent to give names and addresses in road accidents leading up to inquests. Anything which will make this more difficult is to be resisted."

By Jean Morgan

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