Response to Leveson from ethics chair, Angela Phillips

By Media Reform Coalition / Friday November 30, 2012 Read More
In an article posted on journalism.co.uk, Angela Phillips, chair of the Media Reform ethics committee, writes about how the Leveson proposals could improve prospects for investigative journalism by a process which, as Justice Leveson said yesterday:  “Cannot be realised without legislation”. Phillips noted under Leveson’s proposals: “While complainants could still take the matter to court after arbitration, the much reviled ‘legal underpinning’, would ensure that the decisions of the arbitrator could be taken into consideration in the higher courts. Where the arbitration service rules that there is a clear public interest in a disclosure, publications would at last be safe from the threat of draconian court action. Something that Guardian editor, Alan Rusbridger, welcomed when interviewed on the Today programme this morning [Friday].” This suggestion was at the heart of the Media Reform proposals to Leveson and  while we are concerned that there was little to offer on the question of plurality we will continue to campaign, both to get the key proposals of Leveson implemented and to continue to push the issue of plurality which is central to all our concerns.