Neil is a former music journalist whose writing has been published in City Life, Manchester Evening News, Jockey Slut, Metro, Select, 7, Sleaze Nation, Q, Uncut and London Lite. He now writes regularly for the current affairs journal spiked on such issues as multiculturalism, education, drugs and licensing laws, anti-materialist sceptics and the white working class. In September 2007 he contributed a chapter called ‘The Rise and Rise of Credentialism’ to The Lecturers Guide to Further Education by Hayes, Turner and Marshall (Open University Press), and has contributed a chapter ‘Minorities, Multiculturalism and the Metropolitan Experience’ to The Future of Community by Clements, Donald, Earnshaw and Williams (Pluto Press) in October 2008. He is currently Head of Sociology at the JFS Sixth Form Centre in Harrow, Middlesex, and teaches Government & Politics and Sociology
Taming the tabloid beast: reining in the press after Hackgate?
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The revelation that murder victim Milly Dowler’s phone had been hacked caused a scandal that sparked a raft of political inquiries into controlling the press with new laws and regulations. But can we really muzzle tabloid newshounds at the same time as protecting the techniques of investigative journalism that speaks truth to power? While those who sought to limit the influence of Rupert Murdoch and expose illegal red top practices might see the closing of the News of the World as a victory for responsible reporting, further revelations of police complicity and widespread use of private investigators to steal information threaten all of Fleet Street. Has understandable disgust at the treatment of the Dowler family been used to justify a crackdown on journalism by the very people it is supposed to investigate?
In the name of the public, politicians and judges are considering the biggest reorganisation of journalism in the modern era, but do ordinary people really want this? The public did not complain about hacking when stolen information revealed the MPs’ expenses racket or the ‘Climategate’ scandal, or when WikiLeaks exposed war crimes. Do Hugh Grant, Paul McCartney and Max Mosley really represent the people?
However politicians may exploit the scandal, many people do not trust a press that is obsessed with celebrity; even the broadsheets, the supposedly quality newspapers, seem to follow a similar news agenda to the red tops, picking up the tabloid droppings and processing them into more acceptable forms. Some say it’s not the newspapers’ fault that journalism got small: the internet and so-called citizen journalism have forced them to give the public what it’s interested in, not what is in its interest. If the press merely reflects what the public wants, all this is our fault. So if we get the press we deserve, should we also get the press regulation we deserve, even if it means curbing press freedom? Or is there a case to be made for giving the press free rein - within the law - even if the results are sometimes unedifying?
Recommended readings
Defend a free press - don’t just guard the Guardian
Yes, the police threat to the liberal newspaper was outrageous – but who invited the authorities to crack down on the press in the first place?
Mick Hume, spiked, 27 September 2011
Labour's odd plan to get bad journalists 'struck off'
Ivan Lewis has a proposal to clean up the press. Shame it's unworkable and illiberal.
Helen Lewis Hasteley, New Statesmen, 27 September 2011
No, I'm not kidding. We really have to defend the Guardian
As a result of the hysteria surrounding phone hacking the demise of a few more newspapers may be hastened. And free speech and plurality of opinion will go the same way.
Richard Littlejohn, Daily Mail, 21 September 2011
If only phone hacking were the real scandal
The state’s abuse of power makes News of the World hacks look tame.
Brendan O'Neill, Spectator, 20 August 2011
The evolution of a weird super-story
We are building a scaffold for investigative journalism out of the Dowlers’ suffering.
Sean Bell, Culture Wars, 17 August 2011
Will the dirty business of journalism survive hackgate?
These are uncertain times for journalists, not least those working at the Guardian stable, where the triumph of the phone hacking exposures has coincided with the announcement that the paper will now be a 'web first' news organisation.
Martin Bright, Spectator, 17 July 2011
Phone hacking: My big fear is this scandal could damage investigative journalism
In my career as a journalist I have lied, I have received stolen goods, and for these things I have won two of the top awards in the profession.
Andrew Gilligan, Daily Telegraph, 10 July 2011
Taming the tabloid beast: reining in the press after Hackgate?
Sometimes the public gets what it deserves...
Sean Bell, The Independent Blog, Saturday, 8 October 2011
Speaker
Speaker
Sean is a founder member of The Brighton Salon and a journalist who formerly worked in the local press industry and on the magazines Computing and Campaign. Sean has written dozens of reviews of salon events and occasionally contributes to other publications. He has been involved with many and various political and cultural campaigns for many years.
Sean writes freelance about the relationship between journalism the public and runs an editing and proofing company. He also organises activities for The Brighton Salon as its secretary.
Speaker
Bob has been executive director of the Society of Editors since its foundation in 1999. He was the award-winning editor of the Cambridge Evening News from 1984 to 1998. He was President of the Guild of Editors 1997-98, which became the Society of Editors in 1999.
The Society of Editors has nearly 450 members in national, regional and local newspapers, magazines, broadcasting and digital media, media law and journalism education. It campaigns for media freedom the wider right to freedom of expression, freedom of information and the public’s right to know and for the maintenance of high media standards.
He leads the society’s research and lobbying of government and other organisations on a wide range of issues that directly or indirectly affect all sectors of the media. The society, which has nearly 450 members in national, regional and local newspapers, magazines, broadcasting, digital media, journalism education and media law.
He was previously chairman of the Guild of Editors’ Parliamentary and Legal Committee. He was also a member of the Editors’ Code Committee, which produces the newspaper and magazine industry’s Code of Practice that is policed by the Press Complaints Commission. He helped revise the code after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Speaker
Coral has worked in the TV industry for over 15 years with a special interest in working in multimedia. She trained as a radio journalist moved quickly into television working for TV companies such as Anglia television and production companies like Rodger Bolton Productions and Rapido.
Coral then went on to work for the first wave of multimedia internet channels - PCCW/TWI’s Now channel on environment news programmes - and most recently worked for Al Gore’s TV network, Current TV on Google Current news and later as manager for UK programming.
Chair
David works for the Institute of Ideas and is the co-ordinator of the UK Battle Satellite programme. He is TV columnist for spiked, poetry editor for Culture Wars and co-founder of the Institute of Ideas’ Current Affairs Forum. He is an alumnus of the Debating Matters Competition, having competed in its first year 03/04. He has continued to support the competition ever since, holding roles as Topic Guide Editor and speakers’ co-ordinator for the Global Uncertainties Network.
David has a MA in Creative Writing from the University of Exeter, and has also worked in communications and public affairs for Libertas and the Design and Artists Copyright Society.