The first hostage video shows a girl with bruises on her face who cries while she reads the kidnappers' demands to the camera. These demands were posted on YouTube and left up for 9 minutes before the government was able to take them down, marking the first time the government exercised its power over public media. However, it was not enough to stop people from downloading and sharing the video with their friends, and Prime Minister (PM) Callow knew that the country’s news outlets would have the story soon. So, he places a “5D Notice” on the outlets, preventing them from running the story. This is not, however, enough to stop the spread of the video on social media, such as Twitter. The prime minister curses the internet when he hears that the video is on Twitter.
The episode serves as a commentary on government's influence on the media. The scenes in the newsrooms give an on-the-ground representation of the citizens’ response to the government restricting the media. In one scene, a reporter mentions how none of the media have broken the D notice, but another laughs because “Facebook can run it, but they can't”. This shows how the government exercises control over the free press, forcing the story to less reliable platforms, and it will get out eventually. Once CNN and other American news outlets run the story, the reporters get desperate. One scene shows a reporter on a call with a government representative, who threatens “not to give them anything again,” highlighting how the government had manipulated news in the past and how it could leverage the press to change or stop a story.
The episode also serves as a commentary on the media’s influence on government. In the aforementioned scene, the female reporter is shown flirting and sending nudes with a government insider in exchange for information. Getting more desperate as time runs out, they plan to fake the video with a green screen and a famous actor, a paparazzi is able to photograph outside of a recording studio, and the kidnapper soon realizes that the government was trying to break a rule to get around the prime minister engaging in the act. This causes him to send the second video, in which he “mutilates” the princess, directly to the press. Media communicates public mood response and shifting views on what the prime minister will do, and becomes the government's source of information on the public, along with social media. The government begins insisting that he comply with its demands, then threatens him and his family to do so. He eventually gives in. Afterward, it is shown that the “mutilation” of the princess, which caused the public to pressure him into the act, was faked.
The episode also shows how the government can infringe on personal privacy, even if it's used for law enforcement purposes in The National Anthem. The government is shown tracking the video's origin, getting a postal code from searching upload sizes, and then finding a satellite view of the house. But when they go to the location they were able to track, they find that the kidnapper used a proxy. A reporter manages to get a video of them, and they assume she is the kidnapper and proceed to shoot her. When they realize their mistake, they shoot her phone, on which she had been recording them. The government can manipulate the broadcast slightly by playing a low, ominous tone before it starts, causing nausea and making people not watch. They also made it illegal to record or possess the event after midnight, showing the government’s control over their citizen’s right to public information, even if it is for a good reason.