Comment piece by Paul Donovan, a Redbridge Labour councillor for Wanstead village and blogger:

The Government decided to take aim at the messenger at the time of the revelations about special adviser Dominic Cummings’ lockdown-breaking activities in Durham.

It was all due to the media’s misreporting, according to ministers sent in to defend Cummings.

The exposure of Cummings was a highlight of the media coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Excellent work from the Guardian and the Mirror exposed the Upstairs Downstairs attitude at play at the heart of government, one rule for Downing Street, another for the populace.

Public anger was well and truly stirred, especially when the Daily Mail weighed into castigate Cummings and Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

But how well has the media done overall on the pandemic?

In the early days, there were questioning voices as to why the UK was following a different path to the rest of the world.

The Government changed tack from its herd immunity approach and moved to a lockdown.

It was at this point that much of the media turned into a propaganda arm of government, playing a role in propagating Project Fear.

This meant emphasising the deadliness of the disease to ensure people ‘stayed at home.’

The narrative meant starting almost every news item with the death figures.

The Department of Health did not release recovery figures to journalists.

It was only as plans for the lifting of lockdown were being announced that Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, announced 17 per cent of London and five per cent outside had had the disease.

The role of media in project fear was underlined at the start of lockdown by former Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, Peter Fahy.

Asked on Newsnight what the police could do to enforce lockdown, Sir Peter mentioned the limitations on the police before declaring that the type of media coverage amplifying the deadliness of the disease was by far the best deterrent.

Pressure grew as it became obvious from the frontline that people were dying due to lack of PPE and how the mistakes on testing had contributed to the UK’s failure to contain the virus.

Some devastating exposes followed, such as from the Sunday Times, which presented a chronology of the bungling approach of the Government to the pandemic.

Panorama ran several excellent exposes, notably one on the failure to supply adequate PPE.

The Guardian and Mirror ran a number of excellent exposes, none better than the Cummings debacle.

And Newsnight and Channel 4 News have been forensic in exposing ongoing inadequacy.

Newsnight anchor Emily Maitlis has often seemed to speak for the nation, calling the government to account, none more so than with the Cummings affair, for which she received a reprimand from the BBC.

So the media has performed well in holding the Government to account, even if it did take a little time to get going.

There is still much to be done, keeping the Government and other agencies under scrutiny. It will also be important in the long run to ensure that there is a comprehensive public inquiry into the way the pandemic has been handled in the UK.

See paulfdonovan.blogspot.com