The story of two murder victims

Murder victims Tom ap Rhys Pryce (left) and Balbir Matharu

Tom ap Rhys Pryce and Balbir Matharu died on the same day

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has accused the media of "institutional racism" over the way it reports killings.

He cited the cases of two London men, one Asian and one white, who died on the same day.

But newspapers have argued against this saying the actual number of stories printed on the two victims were similar.

Peter Horrocks, head of the BBC's television news, said he did not see a racist slant in coverage of the murders but a wider range of killings needed to be considered to find any pattern.

The BBC News website wrote seven articles on Tom ap Rhys Pryce and four on Balbir Matharu.

A survey of some of the national newspapers in the days between Mr Rhys Pryce being killed and two men being charged with his murder shows that more and longer articles were written about him than Mr Matharu.

Daily Mail: Rhys Pryce - five, Balbir Matharu - one.
Sun: Rhys Pryce - seven, Balbir Matharu - one.
Guardian: Rhys Pryce - five, Balbir Matharu - two
Independent: Rhys Pryce - three, Balbir Matharu - none.
Telegraph: Rhys Pryce - nine , Balbir Matharu - none.
Mirror: Rhys Pryce - nine, Balbir Matharu - none.

In some newspapers long analysis features and leader columns were devoted to the Rhys Pryce killing and the Sun put up a �20,000 reward for information.

But some story numbers are boosted by court reports of two men being charged with murdering Mr Rhys Pryce. No one has been charged with Mr Matharu's murder.



	TOM AP RHYS PRYCE	BALBIR MATHARU
Profile	City lawyer, white	Builders' merchant, Asian
	Engaged	Married father-of-two
Age	31	54
From	Willesden, north-west London	Forest Gate, east London
Date/ time of attack	Late at night on 12 January	Afternoon of 12 January
Location	Willesden	Stratford, east London
Circumstances	Stabbed by muggers yards from his home after night out with City colleagues.	Run over and dragged nearly 40m (131ft) by car driven by thieves, who he had disturbed as they tried to break into his van parked outside his workplace.
Inquiry status	Two men charged with murder.	No arrests.