The conduct of the PSNI press office in the wake of the Omagh verdict is a small matter in terms of the overall fiasco but it does indicate a larger problem. Due to confusion over the timing of Detective Chief Superintendent Norman Baxter's statement outside Belfast Crown Court, PSNI press officer Ken Devlin was broadcast live ordering the waiting media to ask no questions. When a journalist subsequently dared to speak, Mr Devlin began shouting "That wasn't the deal," while Mr Baxter literally ran away.
What gives a PSNI press officer the authority to impose such a "deal" on anybody? He has no statutory powers to muzzle the media or limit the accountability of a public body in any way.
It is easy to understand how the press office assumed such importance within the PSNI. For the first few years of its existence, public relations and image management were legitimate priorities for the new police service.
But those years are behind us now and the culture of arrogance they have fostered in the press office has become a liability – not just to the PSNI but to perceptions of policing itself. The PSNI press office does not see its job as the dissemination of information. It sees its job as the promotion of good news, which by extension means the concealment of bad news.
It does not seem to have occurred to the press office that acceptance of policing is ultimately based on credibility and this is undermined by corporate puff-pieces and evasive statements. An open approach to the mistakes of the past moved us into a new policing era. That progress could easily be undone by a closed approach to mistakes in the present.
Like many official press officers in Northern Ireland, Mr Devlin is a former journalist. This is a qualification of dubious merit because it encourages short-term tactical behaviour instead of long-term strategic thinking.
The PSNI press office is full of people who know how to trip journalists up with sneaky tricks such as sabotaging interviews or deliberately dragging out deadlines.
One of the first things bereaved relatives are told following a murder in Northern Ireland is not to speak to the press. I am aware of one instance where a family was instructed not to speak to journalists from a specific programme.
I have also suffered the indignity of being judged incapable of kicking up a fuss. Several months ago I called the PSNI press office for information on the progress of a particular investigation and was given the classic response: "We can't comment on individual cases." But a few hours later the press office answered an identical request from the Stephen Nolan Show. It is a credit to Mr Nolan that he can make enough trouble to frighten the PSNI press office into doing its job. But it is no credit to the PSNI that its communications policy is determined on this basis.
In the aftermath of the Omagh verdict it quickly became apparent that the PSNI press office had responded to the crisis by producing what is known in the trade as a "line to take" – an expression grimly redolent of weary cynicism. This line, delivered by everyone from the chief constable down, is that the trial ultimately failed because no witnesses came forward. But the chief constable has the power to compel informers to turn Queen's evidence and the testimony of a senior police officer alone is sufficient to secure a conviction under a law introduced after the Omagh bomb. It is sickening to think that the people who came up with this line are undoubtedly pleased with their work.
Similar work is also under way at the NIO press office, where former journalists are running a very successful campaign to keep Ian Paisley away from the cameras in case his current mood of unpredictable sentimentality alarms the DUP grassroots. NIO press officers are assisted in this task by former DUP party workers who are now employed as taxpayer-funded 'official advisers', creating a seamless join between official and party-political news management.
None of this might seem new after 10 years of New Labour but it is new to post-St Andrews Northern Ireland, where an entire political system is still bedding in. Putting that system into bed with such an accomplished seducer of the press is asking for trouble. If the cosiness between officials, politicians and journalists becomes any more obvious, it may well be a frustrated public that decides this was not part of the deal.
