Keeping Mum about Harry

Frankly I'm relieved it's all over. Sworn to secrecy by my bosses, off I went to Helmand as usual, although this time with the "deal" in my rucksack pocket.

The agreement to keep Mum about Harry in Helmand signed up between the Ministry of Defence and the Society of Editors and thereby (tumble a few tiers down the food-chain here) me.

Not a lot was said about it all out there. As I got to know my excellent "media minder" on the ground, I kept joking about getting a mythical facility to film Harry in situ. And he kept not laughing at the joke.

All poor Mark could do was shrug knowingly. He knew, of course. Many knew. Some soldiers and marines told me about it when I was there as if they were disclosing a huge Official Secret.

In fact they were disclosing a huge Unofficial Secret. Huge enough, though, eh?

And now it's all over for Harry many are astonished it lasted so long. Sources in the MoD are simply amazed. I understand that they knew of the leak onto the Australian website soon after New Idea published on 7 January. The decision was taken - astutely enough - to do, er, nothing.

And nothing of course, was just what happened. You have to say it's a huge kick inthe teeth for all those people who speak confidently of the shrinking world and global village and so forth.

The story stayed pretty much where it was. And now of course the website concerned is astonished they were not part of the deal and knew nothing about the deal. How could they?

Look now and it's all covered up with a new site and information. So they cover up after the event. We on this side of the planet covered it all up before and during the event. Didn't we?

Well, not quite. The News of the World trumpeted "Harry Will Go To War" back on 20 May last year. Yes - 20 May!

They went on to predict that once in Afghanistan, he would "be shrouded in secrecy. He will disappear. It will be a case of smoke and mirrors. There are many options available to stop people finding out."

You have to hand it to them. Way back in May last year the MoD were already hard at work - possibly even with the Society of Editors. There was to be no repeat of the Iraq Deployment Fiasco. And that pretty much is how things turned out to be.

Moreover, if emails to Channel 4 News are anything to go by, that is how the public wishes it to be. Talk of short-changing the public and queasiness over doing the deal with the Men from the Ministry doesn't seem to loom large in the public's anxiety in-tray.

Interestingly in all this, the MoD actually appears rather more concerned with the implications for press freedom than the public. in the deal itself it talks about the seriousness of the media not informing their audience in grave tones.

I have scarcely seen a single email or comment from the general public along those lines since the secret came out.

The MoD should be praised for its sensitivity to this - although what now? Might they be emboldened by all this to give such blackouts further reach in other circumstances?

After all it is only the scale and longevity of this deal that is unusual. Back in my Northern Ireland days, knowledge of in incoming RV (Royal Visit) was necessarily disseminated to the media at least a day or so in advance in order to plan pooling arrangements and so forth.

Clearly the then security environment was somewhat less permissive, shall we say, so everyone understood the reasons and it was no big deal.

So it is, in terms of seige situations and other running stories which - it is argued - demand some kind of news blackout. Generally speaking they get it at the behest of the police and for the duration the police suggest.

And we all seem to go along with this peculiarly British arrangment. Take the D Notice Committee - it's all polite requests and gentlemanly cups of tea.

But we in the meeja appear to go along with it with great unanimity and willingness. If this continues, will the powers that be not eventually take us for a soft touch? Do they do so already?

Not being a power that be, I have not the faintest idea - but a little more rebellion here and there mightn't go amiss. I don't say someone should have broken rank over the Harry business. That's a matter for editors and their consciences. But I am staggered at their general reticence to come out and defend what they did, after the event.

Not least because this has all been a rather high-risk strategy by the MoD. The problem for them isn't Harry of course. He's the easy bit.

The agreement folds and you yank him out of Helmand pronto. End of story. That's just what happened.

Because when the story broke it left, to my certain knowledge, at least four locations across Helmand very publically fingered as places where the Special One was/is/had been.

Now if you follow the Ministry's logic then all these places and all those serving in them, can only be on much greater alert and riask from the moment the secret's out.

All of which leaves the MoD agreement exposing a large number of ordinary service men and woman in many different locations. Not ideal is it?

The only way out of that mire has been the hope that the Taliban will pick up the message that Harry ain't around no more.

Hence last Friday's statement issued at noon, less then 24 hours out from the story breaking. Which also served to give the Great Harry The Hero Myth another 12 hours of coverage.

That his deployment had little to do with real frontline fighting in the way of the Marines currently, or Paras and Royal Anglians previously, did not matter. Editors the length and breadth of the land believed the public wanted the Hero Harry story regardless of facts or truth -and they pumped it out.

The MoD will now be hoping that's closed off the security isssue in Helmand itself. What happens to the Prince back in Blighty and in particular when he's not on military duty, is rather less of an MoD concern. There are plenty of others around who will now have that headache.

Leaving us all, thankfully, to get back to the real substance so far as Afghanistan is concerned: the progress or regress of NATO's war there.

And that story, by all accounts, will remain hot long after Harry is out of Afghanistan and in all likelihood long after he is out of the army altogether.

This article originally appeared in the Press Gazette

Share this article

Send this article to a friend »

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Reddit
• Facebook
• StumbleUpon

What are these?