Between a rock and a hard place
Avon and Somerset police are coming in for stick regarding their media handling of the Joanna Yeates case. But is it fair, asks Dougal Paver.
The pressures created by the rolling news agenda have been well trailed here and elsewhere. Fifteen minute segments create a battle to trump the opposition with something fresh on the day's hot story, meaning anyone in the spotlight has got their work cut out keeping pace with the media's demands.
Bristol's police force don't need reminding of that - they've come in for some flack over their handling of the media following the sad story of Joanna Yeates' death.
They barred ITN from news conferences following a critical story they ran around the progress being made in the enquiry. The media closed ranks a little as a result, offering some gentle but persistent criticism about other aspects of the force's enquiries.
Biting the hand that feeds is always a risky strategy, particularly when media coverage can be constructive in terms of prompting cloudy memories or providing support around a particular investigative approach - blanket DNA testing, say.
To be fair to the police, however, they can only work with the evidence they have before them and the fact remains that the case is a baffling one that will require much patience and painstaking enquiry before sufficient threads come together to give them the possibility of placing charges before a court.
A little bit of mutual understanding may go a long way here, I suspect.
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