Death on the Rock

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This article refers to the TV documentary. For the Avengers episode Death on the rocks see that article.

Death On The Rock was a controversial and British Academy Television Award-winning episode of Thames Television's current affairs strand This Week, screened by the British television network ITV on 28 April 1988.[1]

1 Synopsis
2 Loss of ITV's broadcasting franchises
3 References
4 External Links

The documentary, produced by Roger Bolton and presented by Jonathan Dimbleby, investigated Operation Flavius: an SAS mission in Gibraltar which ended in the deaths of three Provisional IRA members.

The brief of the mission had been to arrest three IRA members who were suspected by the Joint Intelligence Committee of being in the process of organising a bomb attack on the changing of the guard in Gibraltar, before such an attack could take place. The SAS were authorised the use of deadly force 'if those using them had reasonable grounds for believing an act was being committed, or about to be committed, which would endanger life or lives and if there was no other way of preventing that, other than the use of firearms'.

On 6 March 1988, the three IRA members, Danny McCann, Sean Savage and Mairéad Farrell, were shot. The programme examined to what extent the event had been an 'execution', with no attempt to arrest the IRA members.

The SAS had claimed that McCann had made an 'aggressive move' towards a bag he was carrying. They had presumed he was intending to trigger a car bomb using a remote control device. After McCann was killed, Farrell made a move towards her handbag and was therefore killed on similar grounds. Faced with arrest, Savage moved his hand to his pocket; the SAS therefore killed him. In all, McCann was shot five times, Farrell eight times, and Savage between 16 and 18 times. All three were subsequently found to be unarmed. Ingredients for a bomb, including 100 pounds of Semtex, were later found in a car in Spain, identified by keys found in Farrell's handbag.

The documentary interviewed witnesses who claimed that the SAS had given no warning prior to shooting, and that the event had been carried out 'in cold blood'. In addition, the defence that the IRA team may have had the capacity to trigger a car bomb by remote control, was subject to criticism, including that of an Army bomb disposal expert.

The New York Times (June 13, 1989) stated: "Events leading up to the Gibraltar killings are depicted in a reconstruction made for a British television documentary. Questions abound. Was the I.R.A. trio, carefully followed for days, in fact lured into Gibraltar? Why did the police fail to photograph the bodies or gather forensic evidence? Why was the press - Britain's tabloids were jubilant - told lies about a huge car bomb being defused and about the three suspects having died in a gunfight? This documentary's understated observation: There was a strong air of Government cover-up and disinformation."[2]

The documentary-makers did not measure the ambient sound level at the scene of the shooting which indicated that no warning could, in practice, be heard at any distance; nor did they consult with local radio experts who state that it would have been easy enough to trigger a bomb over the distance involved.

The then Foreign Secretary, Geoffrey Howe, attempted to prevent the broadcast of the programme, claiming it would prejudice the official inquest into the event. The Independent Broadcasting Authority refused, stating: 'the issues as we see them relate to free speech and free inquiry which underpin individual liberty in a democracy'. Following transmission, the programme was heavily criticised by sections of the the press, notably the Rupert Murdoch-owned papers The Sunday Times and The Sun. The then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, was said to be outraged by the documentary, and was increasingly concerned about ITV's 'monopoly' in independent broadcasting. Mrs. Thatcher said, in an interview: 'If you ever get trial by television...that day, freedom dies.'

A 1989 inquiry into the programme largely cleared it of any impropriety.

Subsequently, the British Government ordered that ITV broadcasting franchises, which were up for renewal in 1991, be determined by silent auction. The amount Thames Television offered for its franchise was significantly less than the money offered by other companies.

A Child of Its Time, The Economist (London), 4 February 1989.
Windlesham, P., and R. Rampton. The Windlesham/Rampton Report on 'Death on the Rock' London: Faber, 1989.