TOPIC: Free Press?

Free Press?   Give us a Responsible Press!

The government has finally come up with a formal response (or deal) to the Leveson report.  It proposes a Royal Charter to underpin regulation of the press.  An all party deal seems to have been struck between David Cameron's man, Oliver Letwin, Nick Clegg and Ed Milliband late last Sunday night. The regulator (whoever he or she will be) will have a statutory underpin, the press can't veto who sits on the regulatory body and the regulatory body can impose fat fines and direct apologies as prominent as the original offending article. To date a number of the 'big guns' of the press have expressed grave doubts and talked about press freedom and walking away from the new regulator. However, the Financial Times, the Independent and the Guardian who supported the original findings and recommendations of Leveson have held out against fearful pressure from the rest of the press. Can the new deal protect the public and keep the press on side?

Everyone aspires to have a free press. And for the past 150 years or so our press has served us well. But in recent years some players have changed tactics and now the Press Association has been well and truly discredited. With freedom comes responsibility but this was largely ignored by some of the ‘big guns’ in the press. What other organisation is so immune to the law? A policy of self-governance is only effective when every partner buys into a notion of responsibility and this was clearly not an option. The Guardian was the first to blow the whistle on the discreditable activities of other parties and the whole system imploded. The Press is clearly no longer capable of policing itself. Just like the Banks, the Press became too powerful.

Ireland now has a statutory system of governance of the press but it took them 4 years to establish it. Why the Leveson recommendations were not adopted in their entirety is a point of contention. Cameron had initially promised that this would be the case and Milliband and Clegg were also happy enough to buy into the proposals. But now we await the adoption of the Royal Charter which still requires a majority of 2/3 in Parliament.  Do you ever wonder who exactly is pulling the strings?