Publicity or silence? No formula for success in cases like Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s

Analysis: Richard Ratcliffe ignored Foreign Office advice and spoke out but other families have kept quiet

In seeking to extract a loved one from the clutches of an authoritarian regime, is it best to follow the advice of the UK Foreign Office and leave it to the discreet professionalism of the diplomatic class, or instead take a leap into the unknown and go public?

Kim Darroch, the former UK ambassador to Washington, hesitated before agreeing on ITV's Peston this week that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband, Richard Ratcliffe, had probably been right to ignore the Foreign Office advice.