Justin Penrose at the Leveson inquiry
Relationships between press and the police are in a state of "paralysis" - and journalists "are being treated almost like criminals" by officers who are too afraid to talk to the press, the Leveson inquiry has heard.
Justin Penrose, who has covered crime stories for the Sunday Mirror since 2004, said the unwillingness of the Metropolitan police to engage with journalists informally meant that even positive stories about policing success were not getting out.
He told the Leveson inquiry today: "Officers have been wanting to put information out about successes and are just being prevented. They've gone to the press bureau and they've been told no."
His colleague on the Daily Mirror, crime correspondent Tom Pettifor, later added: "Informal contact with officers is more difficult. We're in a state of flux at the moment."
On the idea of logging all police-press contact, Pettifor said: "Having this record of meetings with the press is obviously not going to eliminate the problem of corruption. If it was to flag up people meeting the press regularly, I don't know if it would work. Perhaps officers wouldn't meet the press, or wouldn't log it.
"If it meant that officers are more paranoid then they are now, that wouldn't be a good thing. It will freeze up information flow more than it is at the moment."
At the Leveson inquiry yesterday, Sunday Express associate editor (news) James Murray said the phone hacking story had "chronically and potentially fatally damaged relationships between journalists and the police".
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