Yesterday we wrote about why the detention of David Miranda under anti-terror legislation was so different from the arrest of British journalists on suspicion of unlawfully obtaining information. We were writing in response to various figures who accused the critics of press abuse of hypocrisy and double standards. One of them was Brendan O’Neill, who, who made a crack about … [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...]
Tell the government they must reject the press barons’ charter
The government is launching a consultation on the press industry's 'rival' Royal Charter - and we need your help to defeat it. When this new, alternative Charter appeared at the end of last month, our opinion was unambiguous: we called it the "press barons' charter". The three main parties had agreed, after intense negotiation, an instrument which broadly worked; now the … [Read more...]
Blogs are be exempted now – but does the new wording work?
The Government, responding to urgent approaches from Media Reform and others, has confirmed that the cost benefits available to those who sign up for regulation will be extended to all those news bloggers who are too small to sign up. This is a major victory for small publishers and for news pluralism which Media Reform welcomes. Moreover, it has announced proposals for a … [Read more...]
Let‘s move on from brutish journalism, and rebuild trust
by Mike Jempson If the press think they have been dealt a bad hand by the Royal Charter, they have only their own to blame. Those who broke the law, or trampled on the rights of others with little regard for the consequences, have ruined it for everyone else. Editors and proprietors who rushed to the defence of the Press Complaints Commission whenever it was criticised … [Read more...]
Victory, or ‘Leveson lite’? Our experts respond
Today the prospect of a Parliamentary game of chicken over a fair and independent regulator for the press has been averted with the announcement of a cross-party Leveson deal. The new Royal Charter, backed by a law forbidding ministerial meddling, includes concessions from both sides. Crucially, however, it is underpinned by a 'dab of statute', it prevents the press from … [Read more...]
Job done, Lord Puttnam: the “terrible silence” is broken
By Mike Jempson In tabling his contentious amendments to the Defamation Bill, Lord Puttnam made clear that they were “designed to break that terrible silence” which had come over formal discussions of Lord Justice Leveson’s proposals for a new regulatory regime to improve ‘the culture, ethics and practice of the press’. He was certainly not the only one who feared that … [Read more...]