Well said Mama Mangrove - a good point well made.
On another point. I quote a post from another chat site, in which the poster purports to be the News Editor at the Evening Express in Aberdeen (and I have no reason to disbelieve that) which gives some explanation as to what led up to the unconfirmed reporting of the death of one of the hostages, Paul Smith.
We were told on Friday by two VERY reliable sources that Paul Smith had died. I can't tell you who they were, but we had no reason to doubt them. Paul Smith's family were also told he had died, Police liaison officers visited his home in Peterhead to inform his family.
It appears now the information was put out deliberately by the kidnappers.
The Evening Express spent the whole of Friday speaking to the Foreign Office to get confirmation of the death.
We could not get this and held the story out of four editions of our paper on the Friday.
That night however, the local radio and television ran the story as fact.
This was followed up by the morning paper (Press and Journal) who said there had been "unconfirmed reports". We also ran a story on Saturday saying it had been "reported" Paul Smith had died.
Then, thankfully, on Saturday evening the news came all the men had been released.
The Evening Express has followed this story from the outset and done our best to report responsibly on what has been happening.