It's good to see that the Attorney General has finally decided to do something about the disgraceful media coverage of the Jo Yeates murder, though it seems he has yet to be convinced that anything more than a few words of warning is necessary.
The arrested man may be responsible but he has not yet been charged with any offence. Regardless of this, some of the media coverage appears to have equated arrest not only with charge but with undoubted guilt as well. The naming of the man is, itself, surely an invasion of his privacy and civil rights, while the general publication of his life's story is entirely unwarranted. Overall, the coverage undoubtedly threatens his right to a fair trial, if it comes to that.
The murder of Miss Yeates was a shocking event, but it cannot justify the current media coverage. A few years ago, we were subjected to something similar after the killing of Jill Dando, and we all know how that ended. Let's not have a repeat performance.
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