Media Reform - Coordinating Committee

The cycle of ethical crises which regularly engulf the British press arise not from a deficiency in the law or ethical codes, which already cover most eventualities, but from a culture of risk -taking in which laws and codes seem to operate more as a goad to excess (how far can we stretch the rules without breaking them?) than an expression of collective intent. In this, at least, a link can be drawn with the excesses of others—in the banking sector and in the scandal of MPs’ expenses. This latest crisis arises as much from a failure to apply existing law as to any weakness in the system but it does provide an opportunity to look again at the chronic failure of British news publishing to implement its own rules. This time we need to recognise that, as with many other areas of endeavour where risk-taking is endemic, regulatory frameworks may be required that enable and foster a greater sense of public responsibility. However no action should be taken that cuts across the essential freedom of journalists to investigate wrong-doing. It is to the delicate balance between private freedom and public responsibility that this paper is addressed. Posted on 08.11.11