A police chief’s office has banned an award-winning regional daily investigations editor over claims she slammed the phone down on its spokesman.
The office of West Midlands police and crime commissioner (OPCC) David Jamieson says it will now only respond to the Birmingham Mail’s Jeanette Oldham via Freedom of Information requests, after spokesman Richard Costello accused her of “breaking protocol” by naming him in the newspaper.
Mr Costello added Jeanette had ended their last telephone conversation by “slamming the phone down”, a claim he later reiterated in a phone call with Birmingham Mail editor Marc Reeves.
However, the Mail says its recording of the conversation shows Jeanette did not slam the phone down and that she made clear she was bringing the chat to an end three times before politely ending the call.
The Mail was told of the ban on Monday, following two pieces by Jeanette in the last month which revealed a company which employs the daughter of deputy PCC Yvonne Mosquito had been awarded a £60,000 contract by the office, and that Ms Mosquito’s daughter’s friend had been given an unadvertised job at the OPCC.
The claim the Mail had breached protocol was later retracted by the office, but the ban is still in place because of Jeanette’s “tone” and the phone call.
The ban was announced immediately after Jeanette asked for a full breakdown of the OPCC restructure savings, which it states reduced its overall budget by £300,000.
She had also asked for details of the pay-off awarded to former chief executive Jacky Courtney and queried how she was given voluntary redundancy when her role was not being made redundant.
Mr Costello told the paper: “We regret having to take this course of action, but have found it difficult to justify the huge amount of time and public resources spent on often speculative inquiries.”
Jeanette won the HTFP-sponsored Specialist Writer of the Year prize at May’s Regional Press Awards, and has previously been recognised for her investigative work.
The Mail revealed the ban on pages six and seven of today’s paper, pictured above.
Editor Marc Reeves has written to Mr Jamieson and Home Secretary Theresa May, demanding that the ban be overturned.
He said: “Jeanette is one of the foremost investigative reporters in the UK who has simply been carrying out her job, holding the powerful to account and reporting on the spending of public money.
“This ban is an insult to our readers and to the taxpayers of the West Midlands.
“Of course her questioning is more robust than the OPCC may be used to, but it’s this approach that has secured our two articles into the OPCC.
“This approach has also won Jeanette many awards for her work investigating the Trojan Horse scandal and child sexual exploitation, to name just two recent issues.
“We believe the OPCC may have banned her because her line of questioning has riled them, which would be funny if the consequences to a free press weren’t so serious.”
The OPCC has yet to respond to HTFP’s request for a comment.
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Someone needs to tell Costello to go back to the playground, because the adults are talking.
If press officers don’t know how to deal with the press, perhaps they should go work in a nice cushy adviser role in the local council.
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They don’t like it up ’em.
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What’s wrong with being named in the paper if you are a public official? This happens all the time in the US. These people need to get over themselves.
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Costello? Just Like Watching the Detectives…
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This’ll help Joanne keep her online audience growing nicely…no problem with her new contract, then
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Jeanette, even. With errors like that, I think we’re all glad you’re out of it, GladImOutOfIt
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Way to go! Well done Jeanette and Marc.
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The reporter pays the policeman’s salary through her taxes. The policeman does not pay the reporter’s salary! Therefore, who is answerable to whom?
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Oops, sorry. Names were always one of my errors in reporting – one of the reasons I quit for the subs’ desk (where I could spot ’em). How many reporters have tics like that? Lots, I suspect, and why should autocorrect spot that? Another argument for retaining subs, but not excuse for me.
Doesn’t affect the rest of my comment though…why is Marc Reeves being allowed to escape castigation for the latest idiot job loss moves by RM? He must be feeling it.
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Wasn’t Costello part of a famous partnership with another clown named Abbot?
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