The NUJ has been campaigning for senior police figures to address the failure of front-line officers to understand their responsibilities towards the media.

The Home Affairs Select Committee report on policing of the G20 protests highlighted a number of areas in which the police failed to abide by guidelines that have been agreed between news organisations and the Association of Chief Police Officers.

The report found that a failure of communications meant that many officers were not aware of – or did not understand – the guidelines and were insufficiently briefed to know that they should have referred queries from journalists to more experienced officers.

The report said: “We suggest that at the heart of most communication difficulties encountered by journalists is a lack of leadership on the ground and an inadequate briefing before the protest.”

The committee also highlighted the apparent contradiction between the ACPO guidelines that state the police should “actively help [the media] carry out their responsibilities” and the stance taken by the police over its refusal to allow journalists out of police ‘kettles’, the cordoned off areas in which they tried to contain protestors.

The committee said it was concerned that the attitude of senior officers “goes a long way to explaining the somewhat dismissive attitudes of front-line officers to the press. Police relations with the media is not an issue of guidelines, but is instead one of training and briefing”.

The report went on to criticise the use of section 14 of the Public Order Act to remove journalists from specific areas. Responding to evidence given to the committee by the NUJ, the committee stated that if section 14 was used in this way – and the NUJ has evidence to show it was – then it “would clearly be a misuse of powers granted to the police.”

The report goes on to say: “The fact that the police have in both cases apologised does not excuse the fact that forcing members of the press to leave an area without justification sends out completely the wrong signal of the police's intentions and does not help the police build strong relationships with the media. For this reason alone the misuse of section 14 must be addressed.”

NUJ Legal Officer Roy Mincoff welcomed the committee’s findings, saying: “This report sends a clear signal to the police that they must address our concerns. We have been trying to develop a dialogue with senior police officers on these issues, but our concerns need to be taken on board right the way through the Met and other police forces. If improvements can’t be made then ministerial intervention must be made to ensure the guidelines on dealing with the media are properly implemented.”

NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear added: “From commander to constable, police officers need to understand why the way the G20 protests were managed has damaged the relationship between the police and the media. The report is clear that abuse of section 14 of the Public Order Act cannot continue. The police must now take on the committee’s concerns and re-examine how it trains its officers and briefs them in advance of public events.”

29 June 2009

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