On Monday during an urgent question session with the Home Secretary in Parliament on security and control orders in the wake of the disappearance of the three teenage girls who have gone off to Syria to join ISIS, Llanelli ‘s MP Nia Griffith called on the press to stop giving celebrity-like status to such individuals.
Nia Griffith MP explained,
“I respect the freedom of the press, so obviously I would not ask the Home Secretary to curtail that freedom, but I was seeking her support in appealing to the press for some restraint on the publicity given to individuals who are going off to join heinous terrorist organisations abroad. Seeing their names and pictures in the press can make some of these people feel rewarded, and they revel in what they see as celebrity status. Making a name for themselves might even provide additional motivation to make them go. It is important that we know about people going off like this to these organisations, so that families can be on the alert for any unusual behaviour, but this could be done in an anonymised way, without naming or showing pictures of them. Of course there could be circumstances where giving their identity is justified if, for example, there was a chance that the public could spot them, but otherwise over-exposure of such individuals is likely just to be playing into the hands of the vile organisations that brainwash and recruit them.”