Media blackouts can save lives — but only if social media plays its part

As videos and photos flooded Twitter and Snapchat, the media remained silent on the request of gardaí

Armed gardaí and ambulance personnel leaving the scene following the conclusion of a standoff with an armed man in Blanchardstown, Dublin, on Tuesday night. Picture: Damien Storan

On Tuesday evening, my phone buzzed with news of an incident in Whitechapel, Clonsilla, near where I grew up.

Shortly after followed an email from the Garda Press Office saying that the incident, which would later turn out to be the shooting of two gardaí, was subject to a media blackout. This curbed any journalistic impulse I had to tweet about the story, but as the evening wore on, it was clear that I was one of few who stayed off social media.