Journalism Foundation CEO Simon Kelner addressed The Westminster Media Forum this afternoon as part of a discussion on the priorities for future press regulation in the UK. The discussion touched on different perspectives from across the media industry on how best to regulate the UK’s media in the wake of the Press Complaints Commission. With little apparent enthusiasm for statutory regulation the panel considered a range of alternatives.
Kelner said that the first task is to reassure the public that the press is capable of regulating itself. The contract between the public and self-regulation “has been found wanting” and “desperately needs to rebuild trust”.
He continued: “Phone hacking wasn’t a failure of self-regulation. It was fostered by a culture of criminality in which the highest levels of the police and government were happy to be complicit, where journalists felt themselves to be above the law, of an organisational abuse of power on a grand scale. The public should not be allowed to think that the phone-hacking scandal would not have happened had self-regulation been stronger. That suits politicians.”
Statutory regulation of the press is not the answer, says Simon Kelner
Kelner said that the first task is to reassure the public that the press is capable of regulating itself. The contract between the public and self-regulation “has been found wanting” and “desperately needs to rebuild trust”.
He continued: “Phone hacking wasn’t a failure of self-regulation. It was fostered by a culture of criminality in which the highest levels of the police and government were happy to be complicit, where journalists felt themselves to be above the law, of an organisational abuse of power on a grand scale. The public should not be allowed to think that the phone-hacking scandal would not have happened had self-regulation been stronger. That suits politicians.”
To read the full speech in full click here