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Category: Media Democracy

Why Are We So Frightened of Breaking Up ‘Big Media’?

The House of Lords Communications Committee has just published its report into media plurality and few media moguls will be…..

Murdoch and Media Power – Déjà Vu All Over Again?

Thursday sees the announcement of half-year results from BSkyB. There may be a slight dent in its relentless profitability following…..

Distorting the debate on media reform

A delegation from the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) arrived in the UK this week to investigate “The British Government’s actions relating to newspaper regulation and the handling of state surveillance.” At a briefing session organised by the LSE on Wednesday, it swiftly became clear that the delegates had been badly misinformed about the debate, both by press reports and by their earlier meeting with Lords Hunt and Black of IPSO.

What Miliband’s Next Pledge Should Be

What follows is an amended version of the lead story in the Guardian, 16 January 2014.

Not a Local Drama

The drama in the ERT case is that the many domestic and international voices against its forced closure are met with the total absence of dialogue by the Greek government, the silence of the mainstream media in the country and the silent tolerance of certain Euro-elites. But this is not a local, Greek drama. It is a case that concerns the future of the rule of law in Greece and in Europe, social cohesion and public interest, and the quality of life for future generations.

John Pilger: ‘Is the media now just another word for control?’

A recent poll asked people in Britain how many Iraqis had been killed as a result of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The answers they gave were shocking. A majority said that fewer than 10,000 had been killed. Scientific studies report that up to a million Iraqi men, women and children died in an inferno lit by the British government and its ally in Washington. That’s the equivalent of the genocide in Rwanda. And the carnage goes on. Relentlessly. What this reveals is how we in Britain have been misled by those whose job is to keep the record straight. …

Press Freedom: A Brief Guide

Recent debates on press ethics and behaviour have focused on the reporting of the mass surveillance programmes of the US National Security Agency and British intelligence agency, GCHQ; and the all-party Royal Charter on press regulation, and its rejection by parts of the press. In light of these developments, our guide outlines the difference between what is and what is not an attack on press freedom.

The Devil in the Detail: Media ownership limits and unaccountable power

One of the great paradoxes of media reform debates is that the biggest cheerleaders for government control over media regulation are none other than the private media themselves. The war over rival charters for press regulation earlier this year was waged on a number of fronts, but it pivoted on the question of whether power to change the charter should reside with ministers, or parliament. The former was preferred by the great swathe of newspaper groups, in spite of their rhetoric of libertarian defiance. In those countries in Europe where press freedom is genuinely under threat – such as Hungary – media regulatory reforms have followed the exact same principle: concentrating power in the hands of the executive at the expense of parliament. …

The Heart of the Matter: Why media ownership limits are practical, beneficial and essential to restore democratic integrity

In response to my brief on media ownership limits, Rob Kenny helpfully moves the discussion forward by questioning some of the claims and detail in that brief. Before offering my response in kind, it is important to make clear Rob’s interest as a member of the Communications Chambers, which includes News Corporation among their list of clients, particularly as much of his arguments are made with a focus on Rupert Murdoch’s news assets. (I myself declared in an interest at the outset of my brief to which Rob responds, stating that I have been actively involved in preparing evidence on behalf of the Media Reform Coalition).

New Research Models Proposed Ownership Limits

Based on his latest research that examined civil society proposals for media plurality measures and models their suggested ownership limits against current market conditions, Justin Schlosberg of Birkbeck, University of London argues that such limits and thresholds could limit media power with minimal impact on the market.

Journalists in the Dock: A new low for British justice, accountability and democracy

This week, the chairman of the home affairs select committee, Keith Vaz, asked the editor of the Guardian newspaper, Alan Rusbridger, whether he loves this country. This question was significant not just because of the immediate context in which it was posed (the Guardian’s revelations of mass surveillance by security services). It was significant because it revealed just how deeply the discourse of the right-wing media can seep into the consciousness of politicians.

Of mice and men and shiny shoes – Yelland ‘re-enters the human race’: The first Leveson anniversary lecture

David Yelland, former editor of the Sun, gave the first Leveson anniversary lecture in London on 29th November 2013.1 In it he argued that, in resisting regulation, newspapers are in denial about their own power, and that, to remedy the ‘reputational disaster’ that has befallen journalism, they need to accept the Leveson proposals. He gave a number of telling examples of what’s wrong with the press from his own experience.

A year after Leveson – is press power still in control?

One year ago, Lord Justice Leveson delivered his damning report on the ‘culture, practices and ethics’ of the British press. Called into action following the revelations of widespread phone hacking at the then best-selling (and now defunct) News of the World, Leveson concluded – after 2000 pages of detailed analysis – that sections of the press ‘had wreaked havoc with the lives of innocent people whose rights and liberties have been disdained.’ He called for a new form of independent press self-regulation to be overseen by a recognition body established in law to replace a system, managed by the industry-backed Press Complaints Commission (PCC), that had, by that time, been utterly discredited. …

Take Action: Demand an End to Mass Surveillance

Over the past year, 300 organisations have come together to coordinate an international response to the mass surveillance of the NSA and GCHQ exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden. In response to the ‘need to update understandings of existing human rights law to reflect modern surveillance technologies and techniques’, they have developed the International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance. …

Politicians and the Press a Year after Leveson: Has Anything Changed?

The Media Reform Coalition publishes today, just ahead of the first anniversary of the publication of Lord Justice Leveson’s report into press standards, a dossier on the corrosive relationship between politicians and the press as revealed by testimony to the Leveson Inquiry.

IPSO FACTO – No EU conspiracy for state control of the press (P.S. The PCC is useless)

After seven weary months and a correspondence running to more than 20,000 words, the Press Complaints Commission has made a final ‘adjudication’ about Andrew Gilligan’s ludicrous claim in the Sunday Telegraph last April that a motley bunch of academics and voluntary organisations are part of a European Union-funded conspiracy to hand control of the press to the state.

UN alarmed by threat to press freedom and investigative journalism in the UK

In the wake of the Snowden intelligence leaks, the UK government’s attacks on journalists and editors for political purposes are undermining the role of a free press and its ability to hold power to account. International opposition to the government’s position is growing.

Addressing the decline of local media: A response to Theresa May

Dave Boyle writes on the root causes of the decline of local media and why Theresa May is wrong to lay blame with the BBC.

The lies of the tabloid press reveal the need for accountability

Guy Taylor of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants writes on sensationalism in the press and the need for accountability.

‘Press freedom canard’ – Professor James Curran’s letter to the Guardian

Chris Huhne (Comment, 4 November) cites the Express’s claim that “freedom of the press is cast aside after 300 years” without questioning its historical veracity. This absurd claim implies that we had a free press in 1790 when criticism of the social system was a criminal offence, and guilt or innocence could be determined solely by a judge. It suggests that we had a free press in 1850 when the stamp, advertisement and paper duties were still fixed to price newspapers beyond the reach of ordinary people. And it suggests that this embedded press freedom, hallowed by time, will come to an end with the introduction of a cheap and open system of redress for press victims, with a state-underpinned audit every few years to ensure that press self-regulation (unlike its predecessors) works.

Argentine Supreme Court challenges concentration of media ownership

On Tuesday 29 October, the Argentine Supreme Court ruled for the constitutionality of the 2009 Audiovisual Communication Services Act, against which Argentina’s largest media group, Grupo Clarín, had taken up a legal challenge. The ruling orders the implementation of the law which mandates that broadcast licences must be equally split between commercial, public and non-profit organisations. Clarín, which has long argued that the Act affected its property rights, must now immediately comply with the law (as the deadline for compliance has already passed), and divest itself of several cable TV licences.

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