A secure democratic Net is a fundamental right

You need a media blackout because with the integration of mobiles, blogs, flickr, youtube and tweeter news and pix are going around instantly, also your police operations. The Israeli police for example has now blockers of mobiles on wheels that are used to disrupt communications during police operations (except those from the police themselves).

You can off course only do this if you have at the same time a well organised press center where all the rumours and facts are given or responded to in more or less real time (because this is what the tweet, cnn, mobile, rss generation is accostumed to). Otherwise the situation will be much more difficult to handle because rumors and panick will be more widespread.

In fact you need to manage communications and not be managed by it. You should also have clear rules with the press what to publish and what to hold on untill a certain moment. For example 'yes we are preparing to storm the building in about two hours and no you can't publish or mention this untill we are effectively storming the building. " You will also have to give them some goodies. And if you respect this agreement you will be the first to enter the hotel and you will be invited to a press briefing and interviews with the officers in charge.

You can find even better pics of the carnage on flickr here