In the Mail on Sunday is a story concerning two adults from a family from Eastbourne. It is thought they have taken an overdose, possibly as a suicide attempt. The facts are not yet known, as such the media is in full speculation mode.
The point to note here is their names have not been used in the story because their daughter cannot be named for legal reasons.
This is because the daughter ran away to France with her married schoolteacher. The teacher, who has been charged with child abduction, the girl herself and her parents all became household names earlier this year as a result of the manhunt, with their photographs splashed all over the television and newspapers.
To name them in this blog post would be breaking the law. If the media named them it would be breaking the law. This despite the names and photographs of all the actors in this sad piece still being instantly accessible on the internet.
So what we have is a courtroom constructed fantasy that the identity of the child – and by extension her family – can now be kept secret to protect her. It takes a special kind of stupidity, or a complete detachment from reality, for the courts to think a genie can be put back in the bottle by banning the publication of the girl’s name – and by extension her family – in this way after saturation media coverage of all concerned.
I’ll go with stupidity. I want to say duckwittery (replace the d with an f to get the full effect’ but not sure if such words are allowed here and as it’s your place AM…