Leveson Inquiry verdict: UK needs media watchdog

Lord Justice Brian Leveson poses with an executive summary of his report following an inquiry into media practices in central London November 29, 2012

Lord Leveson has handed down the findings in his inquiry into the UK media, recommending a new independent regulatory body be set up free from government control, which the press themselves would sign up and adhere to.

Some members of the British press hacked the phones of the public and celebrities, which sparked the inquiry.

Leveson began his summing up by praising the British press, which “serves the country well most of the time,” and therefore “press freedom should not be jeopardized.”

But he warns that this doesn’t mean that the press is “beyond challenge” and, like any other profession or industry, must be able to stand up to criticism.

He continued that the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), the former regulator, has failed in its task of getting the press to adhere to its responsibilities to the public, which it is meant to serve. Leveson then warned that “putting a policeman in every newsroom” would not provide an answer to the problem. In any case, law-breaking in the press has been covert, with the victims unaware of what was going on.
Nor did he suggest that the government or politicians should be involved in regulating the press. Instead he suggested a new system of independent self regulation. He has already asked the press to try and do this.

The new regulatory body must be independent of the media themselves and of parliament, as the industry cannot “mark its own homework.”
Such a body, he continued, would provide tangible benefits to the press, as they could show that they had acted in good faith and sought to uphold the public interest.

The new regulatory body cannot be realized through legislation, he said, but there may need to be some legislation to recognize the new independent system formally.

Leveson did not devote much time to the relationship between politicians and the media, but did say that in some instances relations between the press and politicians had “been too close”; by this he meant policy lobbying out of the public eye.

The 16-month report looked at why politicians and police failed to react when reports first appeared of phone hacking cases linked to The News of the World. Critics argue that the power of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire was so far-reaching that the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) and the authorities were powerless to take action.

The inquiry is estimated to have cost around US$9.5 million and is supported by a backlog of interviews with media figures and celebrities who were targeted in the phone hacking scandals.

The Leveson Inquiry is expected to recommend new regulations for the UK press and the instatement of an independent watchdog that would investigate abuses and impose fines.

The UK press has voiced protest at the possible creation of an organization backed by law that would control media content, maintaining it would give politicians new power over press. Instead many newspapers advocate the idea of reinforcing the already-existing self-regulating model.

Debates over the possible news measures have seen the UK’s coalition government divided with stiff opposition coming from many MPs in David Cameron’s conservative party.