Two Daily Mirror journalists were arrested after attempting to plant a fake bomb on a train in what the newspaper called a “legitimate and justified journalistic exercise”.
The reporters were arrested at Stonebridge Park depot in north-west London after railway staff noticed the men carrying fake equipment and approached them to ask what they were doing on the site before contacting the British Transport police to report the trespass.
These reporters have pulled this stunt before and gotten away with it – and patted themselves on the back for exposing security lapses. Now, the Mirror wants immunity and whines about them being busted:
Reporter Tom Parry and photographer Roger Allen were held for 12 hours and quizzed at length under the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001. Meanwhile their family homes were being searched and computers, photographic equipment and even personal possessions seized by British Transport Police officers.
The heavy-handed response shows how the Act could be misused to intimidate journalists on a legitimate assignment…
I didn’t know that “legitimate assignment” allowed breaking the law.
They did not have a real bomb, so were is the crime?
If there is such law that says that you cannot plant bombs (it might exist in the UK), then commited a crime.
-as
They were lucky they weren’t shot! Morons… Throw ’em in jail.
As if the police haven’t got enough to worry about. I’m all for reducing the impact of big brother and having transparency and accountability in government but this is a fine example of the gutter press getting out of hand and going beyond their remit. Throw them in the clink! give them rectal examinations, scare the shit out of their families and trash their computers and cameras… dick heads.
Sounds to me like security wasn’t so lax after all.
These reporters are a great example for Americas reporters. Hey guys, stop getting your stories from the AP and go out side to do some investigative journalism for a change.
Apparently they deliberately trespassed into a secure railyard, one that’s used for nuclear materials, etc. Which is why the terror laws were used.
What is the highest duty of a free press in a free society?
To expose government corruption and inefficiency. We cant trust the government not to stray from the righteous path and too often the only real check and balance is a free press.
How and when to draw the line is open to debate. I saw Mike Wallace walk into a Natural Gas Storage Facility and film himself until he got bored and left–never challenged. Should he be charged with trespass, or should we wake up to lax security?
On point–“civil disobedience” (sic) may be the approriate price for effective reporting. I can see a charge of trespass holding, but no charge relating to “bombs” as they were fake.
Check and balance>>>>who else is going to do it?
Prosecute them.
Otherwise, someone actually planning terror attacks could pose as a journalist.
hahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahaha…love it when some one lets their assumptions do their thinking for them.
They should be quite proud of themselves….after all they had done this sort of thing before and showed the lax security….so the goverment took notice and wasn’t lax anymore….good job guys.
Of course, the downside is, because the goverment WASN’T lax anymore, they get busted with legitimate charges under the anti-terrorism laws recently passed in the UK. The Mirror, being the scum bag rag that it is, seems to have forgotten that a free press dosen’t mean a *free pass* when they violate the law.
The charges will ALL be dropped eventually, after a little sweating by these guys.
#8, HM,
Good point.