Articles

Posted by Free Word on 12/10/11

Index on Censorship chief executive John Kampfner addressed the Leveson Inquiry into culture, practices and ethics of the press yesterday, covering free speech, journalistic standards, and journalism regulation.

Freedom of expression is one of the most basic human rights. It is at the heart of democracy, of liberty. Without an open and raucous public space, society is weaker.

Freedom of expression is not, however, incompatible with high journalistic standards. It depends on good journalism. That is why we at Index on Censorship – the UK’s leading free speech organisation and one of the world’s most authoritative voices in this area – warmly welcome the Leveson inquiry. We see merit in the inquiry looking at as many areas as time allows.

It is important though to distinguish between the essential - getting to the bottom of the hacking scandal and recommending measures to prevent a repetition – and the desirable – creating the perfect media. A perfect media does not exist anywhere: never has and never will. Given the inevitable choice, would we rather have a press that is excessively pliant, cautious, and deferential – and we monitor dozens of countries with media like this – or one that sometimes errs?

The hacking scandal was about more than journalistic standards. It was about one media organisation, above all others, that accrued such power that it dominated public life, dictating to politicians what they should say and do. That it happened was an indictment on two generations of politicians, from Tony Blair flying to an Australian island to kneel at the feet of Rupert Murdoch to David Cameron’s intimate Oxfordshire suppers, to police chiefs taking jollies, to a so-called regulator happily taking no for an answer.

 

Read full article at Index on Censorship:

http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2011/10/index-on-censorship-at-the-leveson-inquiry/