Times 1/2/07

On the day of the arrests West Midlands Police told the media not to speculate about the 9 arrests in Birmingham. In a press statement they said that it is "unhelpful of the media and potentially damaging to the investigation or any future court cases to speculate on the details of this investigation."

However the frontpage of the next day's Times was full of just such speculation. The frontpage had a picture of Ken Bigley and an accompanying story continues on page 2.

The main frontpage headline used speech marks (Muslim soldiers 'faced kidnap and beheading'). One of two subheadlines also used speech marks (British Muslims working for police and Civil Service 'targeted as collaborators').

Apart from the use of quotation marks the frontpage section of the main story had six instances of non-commital speculatory statements:
"alleged plot to kidnap..."
"allegedly drawn up a hitlist..."
"believed to have narrowed their choice to [...] three men..."
"understood to be in protective custody..."
"would have been filmed..."
"was allegedly to be paraded in an orange boiler suit..."

And all this in the 4 little columns under the dominating picture:

There are only two pieces of factual information in the Times' frontpage story of 1/2/07. They are, word for word:
"Nine men held in police raids across Birmingham after six-month operation."
"six-month intelligence operation culminated in a series of pre-dawn raids in Birmingham invloving 700 police."

The story continued onto page 2 where the speculation also continues:
"alleged plan was to..."
"Like ken Bigley [...] the hostage was to be paraded..."
"The plan was to be carried out within 72 hours..."
"The intention was to..."
"Muslims would have been..."
"The group allegedly spent months..."
"said to have..."
"police believe the kidnappers were planning to abduct Muslim civil servants..."
"This would have been..."
"plot could indicate..."
"The suspected plotters may have believed that..."
"It is understood that..."
"alleged kidnappers appeared to be..."
"The suspects are believed to have..."

Factual information eventually reappeared in the last four paragraphs of the thirteen paragraph story.