Mother of Manchester Arena victim Martyn Hett takes fight against press intrusion to United Nations

The mother of a Manchester Arena terror attack victim has taken her fight against press intrusion to the United Nations.

Figen Murray's son Martyn Hett was one of 22 people who lost their lives in a terrorist attack after an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017.

But, it was a journalist who broke the news of his death to Martyn's sister - before authorities were able to.

Since then Figen has worked tireless to try and make the world a safer place, and to put laws in place to protect grieving families in the wake of a tragedy.

Figen has taken her fight to the highest level in the UK, and has now brought it to the most famous stage in the world - the United Nations in New York.

The mother was invited to address a Global Congress for Vicitms of Terror about the effects of media intrusion on her family in the aftermath of the Arena attack.

She spoke movingly to an audience of victims of terror attacks from around the world about the moment a journalist told her young daughter that Martyn had been killed in the attack.

Speaking of the moment, she said: "My 16-year old daughter answered the front door, and a journalist standing there said to her, 'I'm so sorry about your brother, what was he like? Do you want to talk about him?'

"At this point Martyn was still lying dead in the Arena foyer."

She added: "Terrorism hits you as a family and turns your life upside down.

"The family is literally ripped apart, your emotions, your soul are ripped apart. The last thing you need is media intrusion.

"Our experience was quite horrific. My husband and I should have been the ones telling my daughter that her brother had died. That's point number one.

"Point number two, at the time of that happening, Martin was still dead on the floor in the arena, and nobody had been identified yet as dead.

"How this person had the audacity to make that assumption and then face my my daughter a child with that information is beyond me."

Figen is now calling for a law which would prevent members of the press from contacting the families of victims in the first 48 hours after a terror attack, or other tragedy, to spare them further pain at the darkest times of their lives.

She says other members of her family were targeted on social media and by telephone, even those living abroad, who she had not had the chance the to tell that her son had died.

"We just didn't need that added stress in an already intolerably stressful situation," she added.

Figen has also campaigned tirelessly for 'Martyn's Law', which would see venues adopt security measures requiring staff to carry out counter-terrorism training.

Most recently, the law was confirmed in the Queen's Speech, setting out the Government's planned legislative programme.

Under the proposals, venues would have a legal duty to devise and provide specific security plans for a terror attack.

In June 2022, Figen was awarded an OBE by Prince William, then Duke of Cambridge, at Buckingham Palace in her recognition of her work in counter terrorism.

And, as the next chapter of the Manchester Arena Inquiry approaches, she says her fight on all counts, will continue.

She says she has found the experience of the inquiry 'incredibly damaging', "You hear details that maybe you don't want to hear and once you hear it, you can't unhear it.

"It's been an incredibly damaging experience.

"But on the same accord, it was an incredibly important process to go through, as a somebody who's lost a loved one in an attack because you want answers."

Figen is determined to continue her campaign for change and has told Government Ministers she is not going anywhere.

She said: "I read somewhere that if you think small is not effective, then you have never been in bed with a mosquito.

"You see, I am that mosquito and I will be hovering around your head and the Government until this legislation is done. I will not be going anywhere. 

"Martyn is always sat here on my shoulder giving it this, and I can hear him say, Go on, mum, go on, and I will do."