The reply I recieved. Only a little different from yours El Grifo, I think everyone will get the canned response.
Thank you for your email.
Little was known for certain for several hours after the MoD's announcement that 14 lives had been lost in an air crash in Afghanistan. This is often the case in conflict reporting, where there may be only the most sketchy details of major developments for hours or days after they have happened. BBC correspondents therefore try to distinguish on air between what is known and what is not; what is fact and what is speculation; to correctly attribute claims and, also, to report accurately what credible sources are saying about an event.
So, while other channels were saying the aircraft was probably a Hercules, our defence correspondent was able to say he was getting "strong guidance from a supposedly reliable defence source" that it was not. In saying it could be a Chinook helicopter, we made clear this was what sources were saying rather than an official announcement or established fact. On News 24, for instance, our defence correspondent said: "We don't know yet for certain whether it was a Chinook. The MoD isn't saying. It's an indication we've had that it might have been."
While the US military has guidelines that aircraft type should be released within two hours of news of a crash, the MoD do not release information until the next of kin have been informed. The MoD's concern is one shared by the BBC and set out in guidelines agreed by the two organisations. No one should hear a close relative named in a TV or radio broadcast as killed in action without first having been properly, and privately, informed.
On the narrow issue of releasing names, therefore, the BBC does wait until the official announcement. We feel, though, that a wider policy of restricting our coverage to official releases is not realistic in today's world of instant communication from the battlefield and multiple sources of information which are often, on the web, directly accessible to our viewers and listeners. The issues you raise are the subject of constant debate and discussion within the BBC and we will continue to weigh very carefully how we report British casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Thank you, once more, for taking the time to contact the BBC.