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It's not just about Murdoch - the whole system needs fixing
Des Freedman
DATELINE: 9/5/12
This week we are likely to see yet more drama and revelations in the saga that is the Leveson Inquiry as the prime minister's former spin doctor Andy Coulson and former Sun editor and horse owner Rebekah Brooks take the stand. You may be starting to tire of the blanket coverage but please don't switch off just yet. There are big issues at stake.
Last week, the Culture Select Committee's report on phone hacking condemned senior staff at News Corp and concluded that Rupert Murdoch was 'not fit' to run an international media conglomerate. Some commentators and politicians in this country immediately tried to paint this as a partisan squabble between Murdoch-haters in the Labour Party and his defenders in the Tories and claimed that the controversy has undermined the credibility of the report itself.This misses the point entirely. Everywhere else, the story is focused on one fact: that a parliamentary committee, having scrutinised the behaviour of Britain's biggest media company and criticised its corporate culture in the most vehement terms, has concluded that the man who is ultimately accountable for the company's successes and failures should no longer be allowed to run News Corp.
Campaigners in the US, for example, have now demanded that the regulator, the Federal Communications Commission, revoke News Corp's Fox Television licences while the chair of the powerful Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees communications, has written to Leveson asking if he has come across any evidence implicating News Corp in illegal practices either taking place in the US or affecting US citizens elsewhere.
None of this will come as a surprise to those people who have long contested Murdoch's grip both on the UK media market as his well as his unhealthy influence on the political process. But there is a more important question that the constant focus on Murdoch threatens to hide: how did we get to a situation where one company was allowed to accrue so much power and influence? What does it say about our political system that it has bowed down so consistently to the compulsive allure of media moguls? What kind of democracy allows itself to be bossed around by figures who lack any kind of formal accountability?
Our obsession with the fate of Murdoch is understandable but it risks limiting the full implications of the phone hacking scandal. The fixation on one man means that we are likely to miss out on the broader, structural questions that ought to be at the centre of this debate. Instead of second-guessing the identity of the next CEO of News Corp or speculating about whether the company is going to withdraw from the British media market, surely it is necessary to ask some broader questions: what kind of ownership rules do we need to prevent these events from happening again? How big should media companies be allowed to grow in a democratic society? What does 'freedom of the press' mean in contemporary circumstances and is it really under attack by proponents of a tougher regulatory regime for British newspapers?
Media power cannot be understood simply in relation to single individuals. Instead it is the product of a system that systematically places the pursuit of profit and influence before the needs of its citizens. At the start of the phone hacking crisis, powerful voices in the press argued that this breakdown in ethical practice was confined to a few 'bad apples' in the News of the World.
Now that we have evidence of a cover-up at the highest levels in News Corp, of a 'culture of illegal payments' inside the Metropolitan Police, and of emails that point to collusion between media lobbyists and a government department, it would be a shame to amplify this mistake and to narrow down the problem simply to one company and one man.
Now, more than ever, power without responsibility - in the shape of proprietors who bully their staff, police who accept cash and favours from news organisations, and politicians who design policies with a view to securing a favourable reception by a powerful media - needs urgently to be checked. The vast majority of the mainstream news media failed to anticipate the economic crisis, failed to hold bankers to account, failed adequately to challenge the justifications for austerity and so have failed democracy. We need something radically different.
Rally for Media Reform, 6-8pm Thursday 17 May, Central Hall, Westminster. Speakers include Hugh Grant, Tom Watson MP, Owen Jones, Mary-Ellen Field, Jacqui Hames and many others. For more details, go to www.mediareform.org.uk.
Reader in Communications in the Department of Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London and a member of the CPBF national council.
posted: 08/05/2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/des-freedman/murdoch-leveson-enquiry-press-its-not-just-about-murdoc_b_1497189.html?view=print
Follow Des Freedman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lazebnic
Last modified: Wednesday, May 9, 2012
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Leveson Inquiry
New Podcast: post Murdoch where is Leveson Inquiry going?
After Leveson… What future for the media?
NUJ responds to Murdoch's evidence at the Leveson Inquiry
Leveson Inquiry: Rupert Murdoch off the hook over alleged illegal payments to public officials
Leveson Inquiry shock news: Rupert Murdoch says his political influence was just 'a myth'
Now we come to the dark heart of this strange affair
Leveson Inquiry: Rupert Murdoch and son to appear
Money talks: no wonder so many rival journalists were beaten by the Sun's exclusive stories
If the Sun hates attacks on press freedom, how must it despise itself!
Jeremy Hunt calls for regulation of press content free of political interference...but no promise that politicians will refrain from meddling in media ownership
Iraq War: "Implacable support" of Murdoch press a key factor for Blair
Women's groups - Leveson must back ban on sexualized images in media
Ofcom and BSkyB bid: We should have looked at News Corporation's political influence
Leveson Inquiry: PCC chief says appetite for fresh start
Chilling effect on BBC journalism of licence freeze: a warning to Leveson Inquiry
Co-ordinating Committee for Media Reform call for change
BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten rebukes David Cameron
Opinion: "Leveson: reasons to be wary of press promises"
Cameron's links with the Murdoch press: only superficial probing at Leveson
Press Freedom: a democratic rubric
Leveson Inquiry edges closer to Cameron
James Murdoch 'shown damning email'
Rupert Murdoch met David Cameron at Downing Street twice during BSkyB bid
The Leveson Inquiry: Should We Care?
Leveson Inquiry kicks off but ministers could still act
Ditch the PCC: CPBF backs inquiry into the ethics and culture of the press
