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D-Day for press freedom in the U.K.

The UK has libel laws, this is a move by an organization that would prefer it's members to do whatever they like in secret.
 
Conscious Bob said:
The UK has libel laws, this is a move by an organization that would prefer it's members to do whatever they like in secret.
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Thanks for the insight, but I haven't been following the matter and I am still lost in fog over here, across the Pond. What organization, if I may ask?
 
It's an organisation called Hacked Off and it's fronted by Hugh Grant, it's aiming for press regulation but what it really wants is the formation of an independent regulator backed up with punitive powers.

Now I'm no tory but I'll give credit to David Cameron the UK Prime Minister in this one respect, he's against statutory regulation.

Hacked off however have been resourceful and did play a part in the commissioning of the Leveson Inquiry.
 
Conscious Bob said:
It's an organisation called Hacked Off and it's fronted by Hugh Grant, it's aiming for press regulation but what it really wants is the formation of an independent regulator backed up with punitive powers.

Now I'm no tory but I'll give credit to David Cameron the UK Prime Minister in this one respect, he's against statutory regulation.

Hacked off however have been resourceful and did play a part in the commissioning of the Leveson Inquiry.
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Thank you very much Bob. Barely heard of Hugh Grant (actor?), never heard of Leveson inquiry. My bandwidth to UK is very limited, namely through US media.
I have been wondering whatever came of that secret all night session they were having, if anything.
I have sort of like press's freedom over there, Official Secrets act notwithstanding.
 
the freedom of the press should include little things like ethics, checking your facts, not slandering people, differentiating between opinion and facts ie not presenting opinion as facts or twisting opposing facts to look like opinion to diminish them. the so-called gutter or yellow press could certainly do with a lot of moderating and if people won't self moderate then they need to be externally moderated. This is the fundamental mechanism by which laws come into being.


Hacked Off is also about the right to privacy which is a very important and much ignored topic these days. People have a very head-in-the-sand approach to it, when the reality of things on the internet and elsewhere are very worrying in terms of intrusion into privacy.

The day in which a forum like this one, with anonymous user names, no longer exists is rapidly approaching. See the trend with 'real names' on Google and FB as examples of where the right to privacy is being eroded. Big Brother is already watching - emails, IMs, text msgs, etc are all monitored for key words. Now they want to know who you are beyond your IP.
 
Meadow337 said:
the freedom of the press should include little things like ethics, checking your facts, not slandering people, differentiating between opinion and facts ie not presenting opinion as facts or twisting opposing facts to look like opinion to diminish them. the so-called gutter or yellow press could certainly do with a lot of moderating and if people won't self moderate then they need to be externally moderated. This is the fundamental mechanism by which laws come into being.
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As much as I have frequently felt the way you do about the undignified way that some segments of the press operate, I have always come down on the side of a completely free and unfettered press.

Meadow337 said:
Hacked Off is also about the right to privacy which is a very important and much ignored topic these days. People have a very head-in-the-sand approach to it, when the reality of things on the internet and elsewhere are very worrying in terms of intrusion into privacy.

The day in which a forum like this one, with anonymous user names, no longer exists is rapidly approaching. See the trend with 'real names' on Google and FB as examples of where the right to privacy is being eroded. Big Brother is already watching - emails, IMs, text msgs, etc are all monitored for key words. Now they want to know who you are beyond your IP.
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And as much as I agree with your concerns about erosion of privacy, I would suggest that the free and unfettered press is the best way to fight against such erosion.

Sorry to differ
Peder
 
I don't disagree that a free press is vital, however they should not take advantage of those freedoms by stretching or distorting, or worse, fabricating the truth. If they ignore ethics then they will lose their freedoms and every one will be the worse off for it.

Clean house, otherwise sooner or later, it will be cleaned for them, which won't end well.

The two issues go hand in hand and if the press wish to retain their freedom, they need to follow some basic guidelines on how to conduct themselves with integrity so that what they do can not be brought into question. Every time they illegally tap telephones, make up stuff, and do all the other negative stuff people object so vehemently all they are doing is hastening their own demise.

Every time they do these things they are handing their freedoms and ours along with it to those who would seek to control all information in a handbasket.
 
My comments are based on my general cultural understanding here in the US. I really can't comment about how the conflicting issues are balanced out in the UK, if that is where you are.
 
I'm not in the UK no, but I happen to have followed the issues around the Levenson Enquiry / Hugh Grant / Hacked Off thing quite closely. Plus I have a deep concern about the ever increasing inroads to privacy.

You have your own issues in the US with the Patriot Act. And other countries have similar provisions in force. It's easy to ignore the issues when it doesn't directly affect us, but the problem with that all-to-human approach is that by the time it does perceptibly affect (it already does affect you imperceptibly) you, it will be too late to effectively object. You will, at that point, have already lost the battle you didn't know was being fought.
 
:) no worries. It's a bit frustrating any way, its a nebulous 'enemy' anyway. You can see a bit of freedom going there, an erosion here, a change in policy or two but very little concrete to directly oppose.
 
I've read that calls for regulation have been largely due to the exploits of a Rupert Murdoch owned newspapers that obtained phone records and the like of the royal family and politicians. The blowback from that created quite a pendulum swing that looks to affect social media as well. Still reading and learning.......
 
Like I said, a lack of self-regulation and disregard for a basic of code ethics has resulted in external regulation which is always more punitive than it should be because it comes as result of abuse of the system that makes people angry.

No matter which arena this happens, prevention is worth an ounce of cure, because 9 times out 10 the cure is worse.
 
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