Shropshire Star

Letter: The reporters in tabloid scrum were ignoring rules too!

A reader believes reporters were in the wrong during Dominic Cummings saga.

Published
The media outside Dominic Cummings' home

The problem of Dominic Cummings journeying a long distance during the “lockdown” is not what I shall comment on because I have not read the rules in detail so cannot give a definitive assessment on the rights or wrongs of what he did.

However, I was shocked to see a scrum of tabloid press reporters, and, no doubt, photographers and possibly TV reporters, surrounding Cummings as he left a house to get into his car. He had to get them to move aside to give him access to the car door and when the door was opened and he started to get in, they crowded up to the car doorway so he had to warn them to watch their fingers as he closed the door. No attempt to obey the rules of social distancing there!

What we had was a scrum of reporters and others breaking the rules of “lockdown” (social distancing) to photograph and ask questions of a man accused of breaking the rules of “lockdown” (travelling) which is a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

However, it was a much worse case of breaking the rules because if one of them had got the coronavirus without knowing, he/she could have spread it to others in the group. Travelling in a car will not spread the virus unless the driver has an accident, when rescuers might be at risk.

This is typical of sections of the tabloid press and related photographers who think they have a right to do anything, including breaking the law and harassing people, in pursuit of a story.

Do they not know that photographs can be taken from a distance and Cummings was never going to answer any questions?

Well done to our local Shropshire Star for not joining in with such tactics.

Richard Camp, Wellington