Comments on: Police press offices are a public insult

By: Matt

Matt — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 10:19:33 +0000

I’ve just been reading The Silent State and can see that our democracy is diminishing far more than I had thought. It’s a masterly account of how people in the UK are obstructed in our attempts to find out what is going on. I recommend everyone should read it and worry.

It entirely mirrors my own search for information about a local medical matter. Unfortunately I have also found considerable apathy amongst people for getting to the truth. For some it is because of disillusionment with their obstructed attempts to discover the truth and for others it is due to a naive trust in what they are told by ‘officials’

By: Timothy O'Brien

Timothy O'Brien — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 11:32:15 +0000

I have read the silent state book and I must agree with the concept of naming those that make the decisions because knowing that their name is attached to those decisions will make them a lot more careful and act with due diligence.
To be fair I don’t know who said what when, but I am minded to side with the reporter who is after all acting in the public interest and not the PR officer who is acting in the police interest.
I wonder, has heather ever considered going on question time? Would the powers that be allow her on

By: Matt Markham

Matt Markham — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 16:17:39 +0000

Notification went out to all media which included the Guardian. No one was excluded and one to one interviews were given by the Chief Constable to BBC, ITV and BBC Asian Network amongst others. They were all free to ask whatever they wished
Paul HAS been given answers to previous quesions and FOI requests. Likewise, he was free to come to the press conference and ask whatever he wished.

By: Rajendra Joshi

Rajendra Joshi — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 13:04:10 +0000

A retired police sergeant, I challenged for most of my service, this inept nepotism that exists inside policing. Press Offices exist for one reason and one reason only; primarily their role is to big up policing, sell only positive stories, and boost trust and confidence. The latter element is no bad thing.

However, in conducting this role press office managers “just do,” they rarely question; they have no vision or idea of equality or diversity; in fact in my experience, some of the managers in such units consider themselves to be secondary Chief Constables almost. Such is their close relationship with the Senior Teams; and this club culture continues beyond and even into the office of secretaries to the most senior officers.

Most are often blasé, lack any people skills, are abrupt and often direct towards others. Very early in service I walked in to the press office as a new Sergeant, but my views on race equality were not liked by the manager; who behaved verbally rude towards me. What is worst still was that 2 Asian colleagues were present and both were aware that this manager then went and spoke with the Deputy Chief Constable to try and get me banned from their offices.

This damaging culture is the culture of gate keeping and fantasy. I only found out years later that this had occurred. Most of these people do not even have the powers of the Constable; but they behave like they do; almost living in some sort of dream world. But Chief Officers allow this because press offices and secretaries act as “gate keepers,” holding back those n the inside that have questions.

Now consider the number of employees working within press offices, promoting and developing internal departmental websites and so forth. These units are full of unnecessary roles. When it comes to writing the “truth,” press offices are not interested if this truth reduces confidence; and this view from the inside is the irony of the “control mechanism” you write about; that is fully supported by Chief Officers.

By: Alex M

Alex M — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 12:55:56 +0000

I like how you object to all journalists being tarred with the same, ‘irresponsible’ brush, yet are happy to paint all PR people as control freaks whose one job is to make sure the public are not informed.