Second anniversary of Charlie Hebdo attack. NurPhoto SIPA USA/PA Images. All rights reserved. How should the media report on an organisation that is, by its nature, secret? This is the question at the heart of John Lloyd’s compelling new book Journalism in an Age of Terror. Lloyd is a contributing editor to the Financial Times as well as director of journalism at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. His book is a response to the increasing scope and power of the intelligence services. Focusing on services in the US, UK, and France, Lloyd asks how journalism ought to respond to that power.
His concern is that, just as intelligence services have expanded their purview, journalism is less able to respond. Lloyd also argues that journalists often fail to understand the internal culture of intelligence agencies. In an age of terror, it’s clear the media can’t afford to fall behind. But there are also real questions about the ethics of reporting classified documents when lives are at stake.
An unavoidable part of this is addressing the culture of leaks. Leaking has provided the most obvious and sensational reportage on the intelligence community over the past decade. Lloyd casts a critical, if measured, eye over the issue. Leaking, he writes, has always been a part of journalism. The change is the way that it is validated by journalism and, more broadly, liberal opinion. Lloyd’s critique comes in two parts. The first he links with digital journalism and what he understands as its often irresponsible use of leaked information.
