The Future of Media Regulation

In the wake of the phone hacking scandal, the question of whether government should regulate the media, and how it would do that, looms large.  So the final event in the Media & Government series sought to explore whether the Government will use the Leveson Inquiry as an opportunity to ‘reset the clock’ in its relationship with the media.

Several themes emerged from an interesting and lively debate between our panellists, who were split as to the form of future press regulation.

The speakers were:

• Jonathan Collett, Press Complaints Commission
• Geraldine Proudler, Head of Reputation Management, Olswang, Solicitors
• Alastair Brett, former Legal Manager, News International
• Anne McElvoy, Public Policy Editor, Economist

John Williams (chair) Director, Fishburn Hedges

Regulation – previous failures and future prospects.

It was unanimously agreed that we have seen “outrageous and terrible behaviour” from the press, and Leveson has been charged with establishing a new set of robust regulations for the industry.

The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) has historically held the position of a conciliator and facilitator, but not a regulator of the press. Undoubtedly, the PCC has defended the man on the street from harassment and has done what has been possible within its remit and funding. However, the phone hacking scandal was not simply a product of lack of regulation, but criminal activity – this requires stronger regulation.

Despite much debate as to whether the carrot or stick approach would be more effective at getting newspaper owners to sign up to the new regulatory regime, there was no consensus as to whether there should be a statutory or contractual framework for future regulation. As Alistair Brett argued, the press is “paranoid” over the term statutory, and it seems it will be difficult to achieve consensus within the industry as well.

Leveson and “mission creep”

Although set up in the wake of the hacking scandal, the remit of Leveson is very broad – no doubt in an attempt to set a framework of regulation that will last. However, by including culture and ethics, as well as practice, some argued that the net has been cast too wide. While Geraldine Proudler posited that some issues, such as the relationship between the media and government/police were extremely important and needed to be tackled, the panel agreed that the remit of the enquiry has been set too widely. Indeed, Anne McElvoy, argued that the focus should be on what’s gone wrong and what can be put right, while maintaining a varied and diverse press, rather than focusing on “celebrity” and less relevant issues.

The “Public Interest” defence

There was a split over the definition of public interest, which will always be subjective depending on your view point, and demonstrates perhaps the overly broad remit of Leveson, i.e. public interest will be very different for a Sun or Guardian reader.

The panel agreed however that although there has always been a public interest defence, it has been rarely relied on, and isn’t even included in the Computer Misuse Act or the Official Secrets Act; whether Leveson will be able to do much on this, remains to be seen.

The public interest argument underlines the importance of achieving a decisive mandate on the regulation issue. Not all may agree with Geraldine Proudler that the guilt of hack-gate lies single-handedly at the celebrity gossip end of the press spectrum; but the panel unanimously agreed that the self-assigned culture within which the entire industry operates, must be held to account.

Top tweets of the night
@MattTee: Can PCC reform itself enough to satisfy Leveson and get the press to sign up? I have my doubts #mediaandgov
@mattfreck: #Mediaandgov: good point from 3rd speaker. I’m 23 and I don’t buy newspapers. I got my news online, fb, tw, flipboard etc. Generation thing?
@Lisaocarroll: #Mediaandgov Brett says we will rue day press is over regulated. I don’t want press to behave; I want to read irreverent columns
@DermotFinch: Michael Gove said Leveson was guilty of mission creep, says @annemcelvoy – perhaps he should have told the PM #mediaandgov