Media turns fire on itself over reporting of Bristol case

Concerns surrounding some media reporting of Joanna Yeates’ murder in Bristol have become more public since I blogged about it a couple of days ago.

It emerged yesterday that Avon and Somerset Police took the rare step of banning ITV News from its morning press briefing because it ran a story that the force thought unfairly criticised its investigation. It lifted the ban, and the report did not undermine potential legal proceedings (as other reports did).

But it’s a measure of the tension around these events become. And it illustrates how the media risks misjudging the balance between reporting freely (which should always be allowed) and irresponsibly.

Meanwhile, the Bristol Evening Post’s splash yesterday reported how media organisations were written to by suspect Christopher Jefferies’ lawyers and warned of their probing into, and reporting of, their client’s life. The high number of reader comments underneath the story demonstrate the strength of feeling and interest there is locally about the case.

When I worked in newspapers, it was clear that you did not write stories about the antics of fellow journalists; the public was ‘not interested’ in such introspection. When the news media does report on itself, you can be sure that something is seriously amiss, as Roy Greenslade points out here.