Why the News Media can endanger Police Investigations
The News Media serve different purposes for different people: for us it’s mainly a source of information, for politicians or scientists it’s a means of communication and criticism, etc. The access is simple and free (online) so that everybody can use it. Unfortunately, this also attracts an undesirable group of people, namely criminals and even terrorists, who can benefit from certain publications. Our media reporting should therefore be careful and regarded more critically.
Let’s look, for example, at the incident in Brussels…
There was a lot of media coverage on this terrible attack: when did it happen, where did it happen, who was involved and who was injured — basically a lot of factual information. Later on, however, there was also a good deal of reporting about important indications and upcoming investigations like hints at the crime scene and in apartments, pictures or videos of suspects and plans for preventing the offenders from escaping (see: Frankfurter Neue Presse, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Zeit).
In my opinion, investigations by the police are like a poker game: you should keep quiet about your current information and make your opponents believe that you pull the strings. If too much information is revealed, it is less likely for the investigating team to catch their target(s) off-guard. That’s why valuable hints should not be published — especially not in the case of organised crime (it’s different for small-time criminals, because they usually haven’t planned either their criminal act or their escape in detail beforehand). We can and should still have factual media coverage, but we must be aware of publications and possible consequences.
As always, thank you for taking the time to read this!
