UNSAVOURY COMPANY


Last week saw Lord Leveson produce his much anticipated report on press regulation.
I took much satisfaction in watching the Leveson hearings and must confess had a great deal of fun watching the dregs of the press and Murdoch sycophants dragged in front of a judge and be exposed for the thuggish hypocrites, perfidious liars, self serving morally bankrupt riff raff that they are; I didn't take to them much.
As I say all good fun, but all good parties have to come to an end and we are left with what to do with a criminal inclined popular press. Leveson’s report has tried to tread a clever line between self regulation and statutory involvement. However unsurprisingly he does call for statute to provide an underpinning of press regulation.[1] Whilst this would not, as some rather hysterical commentators imply, turn this country into North Korea or Zimbabwe overnight, it would set a precedent for political oversight of the press and thus the slippery slope argument cannot be ducked. I hate Murdoch, Dacre and company and everything they stand for, who with an ounce of sensibility does not? However even visceral hatred of this kind does not blind me to the dangers of inviting politicians into a process of regulating the press.
This is not the same as saying, as the nauseating Trevor Kavanagh, Political Editor of The Sun, seems to believe that it should simply be business as usual. The prurient journalism which newspapers have served up to a public that indulged in the hypocrisy of feeding on such prurience whilst condemning it in polite company at the same time has run[2] its course. The paper’s have told lies, corrupted police officers and other public officials, hacked into people’s phone messages, blagged medical records and bullied children. They defamed the dead, hacked into a murdered teenagers voice mail and sought to blame the victims of hideous crimes. Business as usual Trevor, I don’t think so.
Leveson provides solutions to attack these problems.
Firstly, as he makes clear, self regulation of the press by the press is dead in the water, complete independence is required of any complaints agency. Prurient journalism and the invasion of the privacy of individuals should be subject to exemplary fines, a few £1m fines should concentrate minds.
However public interest[3] as a defence needs to be greatly strengthened and this should include violations of data protection. It might require a few thorny court cases to establish clear precedents, but the onus should always be on the public interest, including the public right to know where malfeasance is involved.[4] Greater plurality of sources of the press needs to be addressed with the Murdoch Empire subject to further restrictions. More needs to be ironed out, but Leveson provides a useful template.
However I say again that politicians should be kept well clear of press regulation. The BBC is curiously held up as an example of how politics and regulation can safely mix, usually by people ignorant of the history of the BBC. Nor is Ofcom a satisfactory agency, being all too overawed by the Murdoch colossus.
I am aware that this position places me, not for the first time in my life, in unsavoury company. What can I say, but that one thing I have learned in my life is that some things are true, even when bad people say them.

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[1] The Prim Minister who had months to prepare himself for such a recommendation now expresses surprise that it is included in the report; dis-ingenuousness writ in neon lights with a Red Arrows fly past.
[2] Owning to the fact that the public bear some responsibility for the press that we have is the dog that has not barked.
[3]As opposed to what is merely of interest to the public.
[4]Leveson’s gentle treatment of the police and politicians is, to say the least, curious. 

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