Life After Leveson
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Transcript of Life After Leveson
Life after LevesonGeorge Brock
Professor and Head of JournalismCity University London
The Hidden Cost of Free CommentWorld Editors Forum, Bangkok, June 2013
Who’d be a judge judging journalism?
Lord Justice Leveson Ray Finkelstein QC
Phone-hacking in the UK…but inquiries held across the English-speaking world
• South Africa: worries about the new press law (also Ghana NMC)
• New Zealand: worries about new media and law
• Australia: press regulation and concentration/plurality (+ separate convergence inquiry)
• Britain: 2-part (?) Leveson Inquiry triggered by phone-hacking
Why was all this happening? (1)
• Law-breaking • Privacy concerns• Self-regulation failing• Ownership concentration• New legal dilemmas driven by
new technology
Why was all this happening? (2)• Some newspapers driven by economic
desperation (NB decline is a long trend)• Law enforcement failed• Increases in the velocity and volume of
information• Is the definition of (a) privacy and (b) journalism
changed by technology?• Is there any longer “the press”?• Revisiting “freedom of the press”.
Is this an attack on press freedom?
• Sometimes, but not necessarily so• There is no such thing as absolute press
freedom• All societies balance freedom and restraint• Asking if the balance is right or needs re-
tuning is a legitimate social and political question
• Journalists shouldn’t run away from it
This man has attacked press freedom(and intends to continue)
This is not quite the same thing
2000 pages, 50+ recommendations
A messy parliamentary deal which may not stick
Leveson in 30 seconds• Operation Motorman• Scandal revealed by journalists• Phone-hacking: 5,000+ names found• 3 Scotland Yard inquiries• Almost 60 people charged with crime (mostly
journalists)…300m emails searched.• Celebrities feature little in the report• Trials begin September…Leveson part 2?
What Leveson actually said• Who guards the guards?• Dilemma: self-regulation but uninfluenced by bosses• Preoccupied with lobbying power of popular paper
companies• Arbitration, not courts• Regulation must have quality control = “recognition
body”• Last resort: could be Ofcom• Not “state regulation” but not freedom either
The post-Leveson deal• 2 rival Royal Charters• Vengeful lords• Court cases to come• Exemplary damages
Find your way through this…
The Leveson effect• Popular papers are now (a bit) more careful
More Leveson effects• A very full record…catharsis
• Phone-hacking+Leveson+trials = a public humiliation for News Corp
What Leveson didn’t do(and what he might have done better)
• Look at the disruption of mainstream media and what it means for law and regulation• Look at technology and privacy and
law• Look at law and regulation combined
The issues will come up again, elsewhere. So read on…
• Out of Print published in September •www.georgebrock.net•@georgeprof• Slideshare: georgeprof