Media room The INTERPOL Press Office

INTERPOL's varied crime fighting activities generate substantial media interest from around the world. The press office at INTERPOL's General Secretariat was set up to help tell the INTERPOL story and to assist journalists with specific requests for information. But the sheer volume of such requests can occasionally outweigh the ability of INTERPOL's press officers to respond immediately.

Journalists should be aware that most of the staff at INTERPOL's General Secretariat in Lyon are working police officers, with important assignments and heavy workloads. None of them can be expected to be immediately available for interviews and many will not wish to comment, or be authorized to comment, on the specifics of ongoing investigations. Many media inquiries are in fact better directed to national or local police in member countries, who have agreed to share information about specific crimes with the INTERPOL General Secretariat.

Journalists should also be aware that Secretary General Ronald K. Noble receives an extraordinary number of interview requests. He grants only a very few such requests each year.

Journalists are encouraged in the first instance to use the INTERPOL website for the basic background information on the organization that they may require. The website also carries recent speeches and comments by the Secretary General, which can be seen as official statements of INTERPOL policy. Journalists are encouraged to use quotations from these speeches in their reporting of INTERPOL's position or activity. The site also carries important Fact Sheets, which outline how INTERPOL works and what its officers and member countries are doing. The News section of the site also contains information of new initiatives at INTERPOL, recent activities by member countries police forces and other events of interest to the media. The News section of the site, or this Media section, will also announce dates of important INTERPOL regional and International conferences and provide details of agenda and press accreditation procedures.

If, after using the website for background information, journalists have other questions or requests, it is strongly recommended that they use email for their initial contact with INTERPOL's press office. An email request will generally be dealt with as promptly as a telephone request and it allows press officers to quickly provide key people in the organization with a written description of what is required so that action can be taken or a decision made. This procedure may in fact save valuable time for a journalist with a tight deadline and will avoid any misunderstanding about exactly what is being requested.

The press office contacts are as follows:

Press@interpol.int

INTERPOL
Communications and Publications Office
General Secretariat
200, quai Charles de Gaulle
69006 Lyon
France
Fax: +33 4 72 44 74 07