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Journalistic bad practice: more "icebergs" on the way
Nicholas Jones
DATELINE: 8/9/11
Phone hacking at the News of the World was not simply the "tip of the iceberg of journalistic bad practice" but one of many damning "icebergs" which would be revealed by the Leveson Inquiry. This is the bleak assessment of Mark Lewis, solicitor for the parents of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler. He was at the forefront of the Hacked Off campaign for the widest possible investigation into the conduct of Rupert Murdoch's journalists. Lewis told the Westminster Media Forum (6.9.2011) that it was the revelation that messages left on Milly's mobile phone had been intercepted which broke the "wall of silence" which had previously been maintained by News International and other media groups.
He believed that the deeper the investigations went "more and more" would be revealed about the bad practices which were first exposed by the Information Commissioner's report into the use newspapers were making of private investigators.
Although there was evidence then of telephone hacking and the practice of "blagging" to discover private information such as medical records, most of the press ignored the Information Commissioner's findings and the "wall of silence" was maintained.
Lewis claimed that some newspaper groups went to considerable lengths to cover up what was happening. "I used to get calls from their lawyers telling me that if you mention our clients, we will sue you."
He criticised lawyers for Associated Newspapers, publishers of the Daily Mail, for not having been open minded and for not asking him to inform them of anything untoward which he discovered. Similarly the Mirror group would always insist that it was the practice of its journalists to follow the code of the Press Complaints Commission; they did not break the criminal law. But company was not prepared to say what might have happened in the past.
"I don't think journalists want to be part of a rogue industry giving their colleagues a bad name. They want to investigate properly and have no wish to take action which breaks the law for no purpose other than to fit a story or to create a story."
Lewis said the problem with the PCC was that it was only able to moderate small disputes. "When it was faced with a challenge of something going wrong in a newspaper group it ducked the opportunity to investigate and speak out. Instead it sided with its paymasters; it was in charge of self regulation and yet it failed."In his presentation to the seminar, Will Gore, public affairs director for the Press Complaints Commission, acknowledged that significant questions would have to be addressed if confidence was to be restored in the conduct of press regulation.
He identified five key issues which the PCC would need to consider:
• The PCC had the highest ratio of press to public members of any press regulation body in Europe but it was still not seen as being sufficiently independent.
• Is a voluntary system still sustainable given the withdrawal of Express newspapers from the PCC? How do you compel membership without legislation?
• Should there be a system of fines or other sanctions? Does the PCC need to adjudicate more quickly and secure a better system for publishing its decisions?
• Should a regulatory body like the PCC be merely a complaints body or a wider standards body
• How should the PCC be funded? And where should the funding come from?
Gore said many of the problems which the PCC had encountered resulted from the fact that it did not have the resources which were needed. But it had been effective in a "huge number of areas". Since 2008 over 2,000 disputes had been settled to the satisfaction of complainants and it had issued over a hundred notices to newspapers to desist from harassment.Dr Martin Moore, director of the Media Standards Trust, said he was heartened to hear that the PCC was asking the right questions about its remit. But what could the industry do if the Express newspapers did not co-operate? Could the industry agree on sanctions? And if the PCC was to secure proper independence, that could only be achieved by independence of funding.
Bob Satchwell, executive director of the Society of Editors, thought the answer to the problem posed by Express newspapers was to find an inducement which would ensure the full participation of the industry. He said the Society was against any restriction which interfered with freedom of expression but perhaps there could be an inducement which made membership of the PCC unavoidable. "Perhaps the best inducement would be a system of press regulation which the public accepts, perhaps the stamp of approval of the PCC and a clear signal that newspapers were regulated by the PCC. "Any kind of control or limitation which interferes with the freedom of expression is a step towards the licensing of newspapers. We have to put up with the licensing of television but you cannot have the licensing of either newspapers or journalism."
ends
Last modified: Thursday, September 8, 2011
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Previous journalism ethics stories
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The Sun and Hillsborough
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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
Journalism Ethics
Phone hacking update
Phone hacking: News of the World reporter's letter reveals cover-up
The Sun and Hillsborough
News of the World accused of hacking Milly Dowler's phone
News of the World prints phone-hacking apology
Police ask BBC for cuts protest footage
Phone hacking: now judge tells police to stop protecting names
News of the World executive suspended over alleged phone hacking
Censored? Media silence over latest Coulson claims
Nick Clegg's rise could lock Murdoch and the media elite out of UK politics
The return of buggingate
Leaking in the public interest
Judge puts reporting ban on Alfie Patten 'dad at 13' story
Privacy and the Press
Painful lessons (but 60,000 smackers won't even make NoW wince)
The future of spin: Conservatives would perpetuate New Labour control freakery
Enoch Powell: how the 'Rivers of Blood Speech' was spun in advance
What lies behind the front page apology
Media intrusion: sharing the blame
Ken's Islam study
War spin fall-out 'will be traumatic'
Sound Advice
The History of Spin
Can we trust the broadcasting media?
US journalist freed after record-breaking jail term
Media regulation - battle lines drawn?
New enquiry into press self-regulation
Independent journalist facing jail
Jail for journalists
Landmark Lords Libel Ruling
