On Thursday 13 June shadow culture secretary Harriet Harman used Westminster University's annual Charles Wheeler lecture to call for laws which would limit media ownership. In an echo of our own proposals, she demanded a true plurality law: rigorous ownership caps, hard limits for forced divestiture, lower limits for intervention, and various public service obligations in … [Read more...]
Lucy Meadows coroner rules press played a part in her suicide
It is rare that members of the press are directly confronted with the results of their reporting decisions. But at an inquest on Tuesday the coroner investigating what can now be unambiguously termed the suicide of Lucy Meadows turned to the assembled reporters and said: "shame on you". Lucy Meadows was a teacher who took her own life in March this year after what the … [Read more...]
A Historic Moment? Leveson and Accountability Spectacle
By Justin Schlosberg The political furore surrounding the late night-deal over press regulation announced this week would have The Thick Of It writers licking their lips. The nub of the controversy concerns a disagreement over an agreement - whether or not the deal really does give statutory underpinning to the new press regulator, and hence, which party leader walks away … [Read more...]