London bombs

London bombs terror attack The Times and Sunday Times Times Online

: "They made clear that the bomber was not Ejaz Fiaz, as was wrongly reported yesterday. But Germaine will not be officially named until a coroner opens an inquest."

The difficulty with "live" reporting is the mistakes and wrong paths are reported as the inquiries are pursued. When you are trying to unravel a complex mystery then it is like any other mystery, there will be wrong conclusions, wrong deductions and false turns along the way. The problem with this approach, though, is people become confused, frustrated and some people are "branded" and then undoing that kind of public damage is difficult. First we had timed bombs, then a statement about it not being suicide bombers and then it was suicide bombers and then it's Ejaz and now it is not. Now it's a Jamaican called Germaine. The truth is the truth is the truth. That cannot change, but as you unravel something complex, the truth is not always what it seems. So the question is, do we report and harm families and people or do we widely accept that mystery solving is going to have its red herrings?