Police vans on fire. Attacks on emergency workers. Terror and unrest.
Families devastated by the utterly awful situation in Southport. My thoughts are with them.
Really conscious proceedings are active so will be mindful what I say as once an arrest has been made, or charges brought, you cannot do or say anything that could jeopardise criminal proceedings.
It has staggered me the amount of violence and unease in recent days.
On holiday in Blackpool with my girls last week. One, Tilly, is 7 and in a wheelchair with 24-hour care needs.
Asking at a community gallery where the unrest would be so we could avoid it. The day lots of protests were expected.
My nightmare of Tilly being caught up in something and unable to get away. The feeling of vulnerability that the streets were unsafe.
I was surprised at how worried I felt and I live in the world of news and crisis communications.
So can only imagine the absolute shakiness felt in those communities most impacted.
Headlines may fade. But the unease remains.
I know the work that goes on behind the scenes to manage reporting of protests or marches by the far right that can easily go wrong.
As a journalist, we knew there would be a far right march in Bradford. And that there would be counter protest.
The amount of work involved in to ensure our reporting was measured and sensible was significant. Bradford is a diverse district and we had a responsibility to not inflame community tensions.
Alot of work went into containing the tensions and reporting fairly and accurately, while not fanning the flames of unrest. The police had a part to play in that too.
And those relationships were vital in ensuring the event was covered, but measured. I cannot overstate how much work went into managing the balance between informing and not inflaming.
That is why local journalism is so important. Those relationships within the communities they serve and with the police and authorities.
Never has that been more important and evident than in recent days. Social media and the spiral of misinformation fuelled tensions in a way that responsible journalism wouldn’t.
And that brought me back to the blog I wrote recently on the spotlight around media and police relationships. You can find it here. https://ciprcrisiscommsnetwork.com/2024/07/11/repairing-the-relationship-between-the-media-and-the-police/
The Society of Editors report had many recommendations including the one where ‘forces should consider providing more guidance about the circumstances of incidents and/or the release of police body worn footage to ensure that the public has a balanced view of what happened’ and
‘Policing needs to consider a robust strategy to tackle some of the risks to investigations posed by social media’ and ‘forces must understand the need to move quickly to respond with guidance in the face of speculation, misinformation and correct information posed by witnesses.’
The report, with no way of predicting recent events, stated that ‘social media platforms can allow false narratives to spread causing confusion and panic.’
‘If a national mechanism for informing the media was established, guidance to reporters could be quickly disseminated to prevent falsehoods being repeated in online reports. Sensible guidance could include warnings that an incident is not as it appears.’
I am interested to see what progress has happened with the recommendations with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and if a national mechanism, especially in light of recent events, is going to be set up and when and what that looks like.
If it was needed before, surely the sense of urgency has now grown.
The last few weeks have shown us how important that relationship with the media and the police is, not only to reassure and provide accurate information, but to try and combat misinformation spiralling.
I am not saying that would solve the problem of a toxic social media avalanche of misinformation but it would help responsible journalists get the right information out there in quick time.
People trust their local media, who have a vital role to play especially in times of crisis. That was demonstrated when a government minister visited the Yorkshire Post’s office last week to discuss the local media’s coverage of the recent riots.
Building and repairing the policing and media relationship and developing a robust strategy around social media to not only tackle risks to investigations, but deal with the avalanche of misinformation, seem way more pressing than they did probably three weeks ago.
