What Is The Policy on Anonymity?
I hear there's some unhappiness within police circles about yesterday's Northern Ireland Questions in the Commons. Our Security Minister Paul Goggins paid tribute to the courage of the police officer injured in a bomb attack in County Tyrone. The Minister, and then subsequently a number of MPs, went on to the identify the officer. The Questions, as usual, were broadcast live on 91Èȱ¬2.
Up until this point the officer's name had been kept out of the media, at the request of the police. This was consistent with the general policy on officers injured during the troubles. Apparently the police were surprised that the officer's name had been mentioned in the Commons and it's thought some senior police figures remain extremely unhappy.
However, the names of those officers injured by dissident republicans last year emerged in a similar fashion in the Commons, after the police urged the media not to name the officers for security reasons. Of course, one can argue that if dissident republicans have already attacked an officer it shows they already know who he or she is. But equally the police may argue that publishing the officer's name could further compromise their safety.
Whichever conclusion you come to, when you have the police advising one course of action and the Security Minister adopting another, it all begs the question, what is the official policy on anonymity?
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