Civil servants and police paid to watch TV and read papers

The expenditure funded the local branch of the UK Government’s media monitoring unit in Northern Ireland.

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Owen Paterson was asked at Westminster what media monitoring services his Department has purchased in each of the last five years.

Minister of State Hugo Swire revealed that the NIO Information Service costs for Media Monitoring for April 2011 to March 2012 were £11,340.

Meanwhile the PSNI are also paying staff to keep an eye on the media.

According to figures provided by the PSNI for period 11 of the 2010/11 financial year reveal that: “the total figure £1,550,552.00 includes all costs associated with the Media department, including salaries, campaigns, media monitoring, internal communications, internet and social media.”