An open letter to the Guardian Reader’s Editor

Category: Blog

A Regulated Free Press – Compromise or Contradiction?

Angela Phillips takes on Lord Hunt over Media Reform proposals for press regulation. She calls for the establishment of a News Publishing Commission, run by representatives of civil society organisations and journalists, which “embraces the internet, protects real journalism from the pressures exerted by power and recognises that freedom of speech belongs not just to proprietors and editors but to everyone.”

James Curran’s Rally Speech

We have just heard very moving, eloquent testimonies about press abuse. However, the problem is not only that newspapers can…..

It’s not just about Murdoch…

This week we are likely to see yet more drama and revelations in the saga that is the Leveson Inquiry as the prime minister’s former spin doctor Andy Coulson and former Sun editor and horse owner Rebekah Brooks take the stand. You may be starting to tire of the blanket coverage but please don’t switch off just yet. Des Freedman offers a reminder of the big issues at stake…

Murdoch and the Big Lie

Anthony Barnett argues that the malign political influence of the Murdochs poses a fundamental challenge to British democracy. This will not be dealt with by selling off the ownership of their papers, welcome though this might be, or the removal of their influence from BSkyB on the grounds that the Murdochs are not fit and proper people. The scandal has now clarified a far more breathtaking question: is Britain governed by a big lie?

Did Jeremy Hunt work for the government – or Murdoch?

Des Freedman reflects in CNN’s Edition on the staggering e-mails between Frédéric Michel, News Corp’s chief lobbyist in Europe, and James Murdoch regarding the company’s bid to take over BSkyB – “A government hell-bent on making ordinary people pay for a crisis caused by financial elites has been seen to be in cahoots with a media organization that has a long record of celebrating the debt-fueled consumer boom that so badly went wrong.”

The Future of Journalism

In this paper, just delivered to a conference in London, Angela Phillips paints a picture of a media sector transforming itself in innovative and exciting ways, held back by failing business models. Many myths are busted along the way: that journalism can be free, that user generated content brings down costs, that video is the way forward. So what’s the future? Will the survival of journalism increasingly depend on us giving away our private data? Or will we embrace the alternative: a simple online system that would allow us to pay for the content we want?

Lessons on press regulation from Ireland

Since 2008, complaints regarding Ireland’s press have been adjudicated by an independent Press Ombudsman, and a Press Council involving civil society, the National Union of Journalists and news publishers. This innovative body is an effective and credible new way to regulate the press, demonstrating that we don’t have to choose between state censorship and the kind of toothless self-regulation modeled by the now-defunct Press Complaints Commission. The following remarks were made by Séamus Dooley, Irish Secretary, NUJ at “Taking on the Media Barons” seminar at Congress House, London on March 17th 2012.

Hacking Book – How ‘serious’ media consigned Wikileaks cables to the shadows

Roy Greenslade continues his serialising of the ‘The phone hacking scandal: journalism on trial’, edited by Richard Lance Keeble and John Mair. This week’s installment focuses on a chapter by Justin Schlosberg examining the coverage given to the Wikileaks US diplomatic cables (AKA Cablegate).

James Curran’s speech to the TUC conference on Media Regulation

CCMR Chair makes an impassioned plea to engage with remedy rather than just indignation. He highlights the key CCMR proposals regarding ownership thresholds and new ideas for raising and investing new funds in support of public interest journalism.

Lamentable media coverage and state deception, the scandal of NHS legislation

Aeron Davies, professor of political communication at Goldsmiths, makes an empassioned lament of the media’s failure to adequately cover the politics leading up to recently passed NHS legislation. The article serves as a reminder that problems with the UK media are not limited to the tabloid sector.

Campaign for Real Journalism

Building on our briefing paper on Funding Models, we have produced two further briefs examining alternative avenues of support for public interest journalism. Investigative journalism and local news have faced the sharp end of resource cuts across platforms in recent decades yet they are also foundational to a media system that serves democratic ends. Identifying a range of precedents both domestically and internationally, these documents attempt to synthesise some of the many ideas that have been discussed to date into a set of focussed policy options. None of them should be viewed as definitive proposals or problem-free, but rather as pointers to further research and feasibility studies.