Journalists are doing the best they can with their limited time to question the government

The tone has usually been right, with the press directly reflecting public disquiet, writes Sean O’Grady

Reporters at the Downing Street press conferences are doing the job that used to be done by about 600 MPs (PA)

Without wishing to sound flippant at such a sombre time, you might not have yet noticed that parliament has packed up. Packed up, that is, for a longer Easter recess, stretching until 21 April. By that point we should be well into the peak of the coronavirus epidemic.

Given the government’s guidance, and the strictures of social distancing, it’s not clear how MPs and peers will be able to carry out their usual duties when (or if) they come back.

So the role of the media is more important than ever in holding the authorities to account – and I have to say the country’s journalists are acquitting themselves well.

The journalistic tone has usually been right, and the journalism is directly reflecting public disquiet. Whether that is about the disease, about protecting NHS staff, about the decisions ministers have taken, about people losing their jobs, about our economic futures.

Ministers have dropped their silly wars with the BBC and Channel 4, and the broadcasters generally have lived up to their responsibilities with superb public information campaigns – “your questions answered” by reliable experts, myth-busting, short films about washing hands, that sort of thing.

Apart from some bizarre pieces about the “silver lining” of the return of the bow and the curtsy (in lieu of a handshake), why the “self-pitying ‘woke’ generation “needed a war”, and some frankly batty (if you’ll pardon the expression) speculation about Michel Barnier infecting Boris Johnson, the journalism has been exemplary. And produced in difficult circumstances too – The Independent, like other news outlets, is now producing its output entirely outside its offices.

I do wish, though, that the reporters at the Downing Street press conferences would ask fewer, shorter questions. However, they’re doing the job that used to be done by about 600 MPs – and the half-hour they get each day is precious time.

Yours,

Sean O’Grady

Associate editor