One Rogue Reporter, One Rogue Newspaper or a Systemic Problem?

This week at the Leveson inquiry, David Sherborne, the barrister representing people from JK Rowling to Chris Jefferies (the man wrongly suspected of murdering Joanna Yeats) stated that the British tabloid press had engaged in ‘blackmail, intrusion, harassment, hounding and bullying.’ Following on from James Murdoch’s second appearance before a Parliamentary select committee last week, the British tabloid press have never before had their practices so publicly questioned. The News of the World has been closed due to the phone hacking controversy but does anyone really believe that these seemingly systemic and certainly deeply engrained practices were practiced by just one rogue newspaper?

The suggestion the inquiry that amongst the 28 names scrawled within the notes of Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator at the heart of the phone hacking scandal, were not all journalists for the News of the World and had in fact worked for other newspapers was not rebuffed. It appears that many other newspapers in Britain will be watching the proceedings of the inquiry with anxious thoughts about their paper’s own use of these unethical practices and so they should be. Ethical media practices are not necessary just because the law says so, they should be upheld by journalist in order to protect journalism itself. If the public does not trust the media, then the media is unable to have the power with which it can do its best work in a democratic society as it loses all efficacy as a trustworthy source.

The British press has long been respected by others across the world as a paradigm example of what press freedom should look like. In the wake of this enquiry, people may now begin to question whether the freedom went too far and the British press has in fact for years been working outside of the legal and ethical constraints that should, indubitably, be respected. The next few weeks should be extremely interesting for British media ethics and by extension, global media ethics. Watch this space!

Source: The Guardian