Looking out for Leveson – and the struggle to achieve an effective system of press regulation
This week, I visited the offices of Hacked Off, the campaign for a free and accountable press, and, on Thursday, the Leveson inquiry will report when the judge will make recommendations on the future of press regulation in the UK.
Meanwhile I’ve been looking at the book “Everybody’s Hacked Off” by Brian Cathcart and I support fully the principles which he identifies as eseential to a future system of regulation of the press:
- independence from editors and proprietors
- independence from other interests including government
- the ability to provide redress
- the ability to investigate when things go wrong
- the ability to impose sanctions
- the ability to compel membership
- regular submission to external inspection
Like the Hacked Off campaign, I believe that the new system of press regulation should have statutory underpinning. It works for broadcasting in Britain and for the press in Denmark. It can work here.
I also believe Leveson’s proposals will need to embrace content on the Internet.
Some newspapers now have more visits online to their web site than readers of the print version of the paper. It is only a matter of time before some newspapers become online only. Meanwhile we have the evolution of social media and citizen journalism which begs the question of how we balance free speech and privacy online.