SILENCE SPEAKS VOLUMES

Roman Lavrynovych, Stanislav Copiuc and Petro Pochynok

On Monday morning in Court 2 at the Old Bailey, the criminal trial of three young foreign men got underway with the formalities of swearing the jury in, case management and so on.  However, this was no ordinary trial.  By now it should be the most talked about trial of all time, but instead most British people don't even know that the trial is even taking place at all.

Ahead of the trial of the three Ukrainians (one a Romanian national born in the Ukraine), social media was awash with claims of a 'super injunction' that would restrict media reporting on the case.  No evidence was provided for such a claim.  Then, as proceedings commenced, an image began circulating that appeared to show a court document suggesting that reporting restrictions were in place.  However, this was contradicted by citizen journalists who had attended court that day and said that no reporting restrictions were in place.  VoxPopuli debunked the claim on X.

However, it was clear by lunchtime on Monday that something significant had happened with regards to media coverage of the trial - or complete lack of it - not a single newspaper article and no mention of it in any news broadcast or online report from any major news outlet.  The mainstream media blackout continued into Tuesday and has only slightly relented on Wednesday, as the prosecution begin to lay out their case.  Sky News is now covering the trial live on its website.  At the time of writing, there remains very little coverage elsewhere.

So if there were no reporting restrictions and no 'super injunction', then why the silence?  The alternative explanation is the submission of a 'DSMA-Notice'.  DSMA-Notices (more widely known as D-Notices) are issued to media outlets in confidentiality, usually on the understanding that national security is at risk if the request is not adhered to.  DSMA stands for Defence and Security Media Advisory.  These requests are not legally binding and the final decision on compliance lies with editors.

With the prosecution case now under way, have some editors decided to override the D-Notice now that the juicy details of the case are emerging?  Will this lead to a flood of defiance from other news outlets?  At the time of writing there is still zero coverage from the BBC, ITV and Channel 4.

It's all very odd.  Equally strange is the silence from opposition politicians.  MPs have been debating about whether to hold an inquiry into the Mandelson affair and PMQs has now been and gone without a single reference to the trial, despite this huge elephant providing no end of awkward questions for Starmer.

Whatever's happened, it is clear that the state believes that a colossal cover-up of the trial will shield the PM in what is already a deeply difficult period for him.  However, the imposition of mass silence only seems to confirm that Starmer has something to hide, something potentially very seedy indeed.  Naturally, any restriction of information will only lead to more questions.

Silence speaks volumes.