MoD Plod could well be directed at anyone attempting to confirm a journo's "It says in Jane's....." queries for 'adding credence' to open source reports.
It was always fun getting some "I can neither confirm nor deny" comments from Spams at airshows. We were once parked near an EF-111A 'SparkVark', so sent a carefully briefed girlie Space Cadet across to talk to the RayBan wearing 'look at me I'm cool' aircrew.....
"Hello, what aeroplane is this"
"(Usual Spam party line)"
"Gosh - that sounds fast. But what is it used for?"
"(Usual Spam bull$hit)"
"Really? And what's the effective radiated power of the I-band emitter compared with isotropic?"
