Journalism/Media Law:”Unruly” Media to Face New Rules in Britain
«Unruly» Media to Face New Rules in Britain
In a July article published by the Associated Press, writer Gregory Katz reported that Britian’s «unruly» media are likely to face new rules.
The article said that media organizations throughout the world like to portray themselves as defenders of public good and view themselves as fearless watchdogs ready to root out criminality. But problems occur when reporters and editors break the law and violate common decency and these problems must be addressed in a new system that forces newspapers to live up to basic standards, said Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron.
Britain’s press is supposed to be kept in check by the industry-funded Press Complaints Commission. But Cameron insists that the commission has failed in its mission, particularly in the recent investigation of a phone hacking scandal related to illegal activity at Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World that had no teeth. Unfortunately there is no consensus on how the Commission can be replaced with a regulatory system that really works.
Cameron said the PCC, which replaced an earlier, even weaker self-regulatory group called the Press Council, is fatally flawed because it has no real investigative powers. He said a new, stronger version of the PCC may emerge that would actually be strong enough to prevent — and punish — future press abuses. The article said a second option would include the creation of a taxpayer-funded s agency with its mandate and powers defined by law, which would give it real power. There could also be a hybrid of the two systems.
But Cameron seemed to rule out the government agency concept when he said the new oversight agency must be independent of both the government and the newspaper industry. According to the article, he said the relationship between the two has been too cozy and must be reformed.
Media analyst Claire Enders was quoted in the article as saying said that print media is notoriously hard to regulate. But she said newspapers will now face tougher regulation, because so much wrongdoing has been exposed. Enders added that a much stricter code of conduct and an explicit sanction against companies that breach the human rights or civil rights of victims. The article said this could mean newspapers would have to adhere to codes set out in the stringent European Convention on Human Rights and face penalties when rights were violated.
