by Brian Cathcart And then there were three. Far from being the work of ‘the newspaper industry’, the latest attempt to prevent effective, independent press regulation on Leveson lines is being led by just three organisations. The Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph and the Murdoch papers – all of them, incidentally, rich and profitable –… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Comment
The Press Barons’ go-it-alone draft charter: 10 questions and answers
Parts of the press have today published a draft Royal Charter which they say they prefer to the one that was approved by all parties in Parliament last month – the one closely based on the recommendations of the Leveson Inquiry. On the basis of this charter they say they will reject the will of… Read more »
Leveson, “secret arrests” and the rights of suspects: a question of balance
by Hugh Tomlinson QC The Mail on Sunday and the Daily Telegraph are alarmed about ‘secret arrests’ – which, as usual, they blame on Lord Justice Leveson. The complaint concerns proposed new guidelines from the Association of Chief Police Officers under which “forces will be banned from confirming the names of suspects”. The Mail calls it “a chilling new… Read more »
Fear not: Hacked Off hasn’t gone globetrotting
A note to reassure some Independent readers. For those taken in by the April Fools Day story, just for the record, Hacked Off is not advising dictators around the world on media censorship. Some of the feedback on the Indy’s site suggests that a few people took the gag seriously…
What the press and the Tories got up to: two illuminating accounts
On 24 March the Guardian’s editor, Alan Rusbridger, wrote an article entitled “We need reform and a free press. This will require both time and openness“. In it he gave a revealing account of the behind-closed-doors dealings that took place between editors and Conservative ministers in the months that followed the publication of the Leveson report… Read more »
Papers that hate human rights – except when it’s their rights
One of the more remarkable features of the “war on Leveson” waged by leading British papers has been their willingness to appeal to the European Convention on Human Rights. In the cases of several newspaper groups this is the most flagrant hypocrisy. They have consistently accused the Court of Human Rights of ignoring the will of… Read more »