Media talk

British newspapers have been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons this year from phone hacking to allegedly bribing public officials. But the police also deserve their fair share of blame. Numerous police officers have been arrested in the early part of this year accused of leaking information to the media. It appears that this practice continues. A member of the elite royal protection squad was arrested over the weekend accused of leaking information about the chief Whip Andrew Mitchell who was forced to resign after calling a police officer “a pleb” for not allowing him to ride through the main gate of Number 10 on his bicycle. Now, perhaps it was right for Mitchell to resign but I remember writing in this space “that I smelt a rat.” Unfortunately, I was right and a police officer has been arrested. He allegedly leaked the whole story to a newspaper which is owned by Rupert Murdoch. What makes it much worse is that we are dealing with an officer in elite police unit, who is involved in safeguarding the royal family and senior ministers. The idea that police officers are in contact with newspapers is something which I find rather unsavoury eventhough I am in the media business. I don´t blame the journalists because it is their job to get the story but I do think that police officers should just do their job and forget about the media. Mitchell had to go but now we know why the story was all over the front page.