It’s common practice for a reporter working on a crime story to run their facts past a police contact and get the nod that what they’re about to publish is correct. What makes the members of the media stick their necks out like this? Often it’s because they’re acting on information that has come directly, if unofficially, from the police themselves. Another very famous case was after the arrest of Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, when he was branded as guilty in the press long before he went to trial, which could have seriously jeopardised the legal process. He quite rightly received compensation for this. The shameful case of Chris Jeffries comes to mind, the man wrongly accused of the murder of Joanna Yeates in 2010 and hung out to dry by the tabloid press.

Yes, there are instances when things went wrong and reporters behaved very badly. Reporters, like the rest of us, have to operate within the law regarding what they can and can’t say at each stage of a criminal enquiry. In even the best crime drama, and I am thinking of the acclaimed Broadchurch and The Tunnel as well as Line of Duty, the journalists behave in ways that would almost certainly get them the sack and/or have them in court for contempt. Too often, journalists are merely two-dimensional, cartoon-baddie-style devices to help pile pressure on the police. And yet when it comes to including the role of the media in the story, whether that is through journalist characters or how they report ongoing crimes, I can’t remember when I last saw a crime drama, in particular, get it right. No crime writer today would suggest a method of murder without ensuring it was feasible, nor would they detail police procedure without checking it was correct. I’ve attended many a press conference and reported on hundreds of court cases.Īs a now published crime fiction writer, I know that authors spend a great deal of time on research.

I worked for many years for tabloid and regional newspapers and then I moved to the BBC, where I worked in local radio and television for seventeen years.

I was a journalist for most of my working life, often reporting on crime. I can speak with some authority about this. So why have I snippily described it as ‘almost’ excellent? Because it’s fallen into the same trap as almost all the crime series and fiction I’ve ever seen – the portrayals of the media are nonsense. I haven’t been so gripped by a British crime drama for a long time. Like millions of viewers, I’ve been glued to the almost-excellent Line of Duty, the series about police corruption, with its twisting plotlines and its breathtakingly talented line-up of actors. Bea Davenport looks at representations of the media

This Little Piggy by Bea Davenport