FREENo 204 Autumn 2015£1 Journal Press of the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom

THE BBC JEREMY IS MUST BE DEFENDED … as Tories NEW HOPE 2 plan its leaner TO TACKLE future BIG MEDIA JANINA STRUK THE ASTOUNDING wave of public support for left wing Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn’s candidature for leadership of the party is a great basis for keeping RUPERT up the demand for curbs on media ownership. COULD BE Corbyn himself is a long-time fighter for true BACK and independent press freedom, alongside the CPBF, the media unions and other campaign FOR MORE groups. He has signed the Media Reform Fox mulls Coalition’s (MRC) public pledge to call Big Media 5 to account and restrict the share of the industry fresh bid the mega corporations can control. for Sky In August he was by miles the front runner in the leadership contest, and the leading candidate for deputy leader, Tom Watson, has signed it as well. He has a powerful record at defying the media barons, more so than any other MP in the way he took on the Murdochs over the phone- hacking scandal. The other Labour MP who came close was Chris Bryant, who is now shadow culture secretary, in charge of media policy. And if Tom Watson does fail to be elected deputy leader, another candidate, Ben Bradshaw, FREEDOM a one-time BBC journalist, has also signed the OF INFO MRC pledge. IN PERIL The MPs have pledged to “take steps within Parliament and my own party to promote the Yet another growth of a more pluralistic media environment 8 official bid by pressing for legislation that will provide new to tighten funding for invaluable areas such as local news, investigative journalism, youth media and digital the rules innovation, and that will temper the power of the largest media companies through the intro- Jeremy Corbyn has long supported the duction of thresholds in specific media markets.” media unions and activists against the big Jeremy Corbyn told the MRC: “A society corporations and spoke at the rally to in which 70% of UK newspaper circulation is mark the 25th anniversary of the Wapping controlled by three wealthy families is clearly dispute in 2011. unfair and undemocratic. The work being done by the Media Reform Coalition and others is vital in put their money where their mouth was before pushing for media plurality which this country is the General Election with manifesto commit- For all campaign news go to so desperately in need of.” ments for media reform, and the views coming cpbf.org.uk Des Freedman, chair of the MRC, said: “This from the top leadership candidates suggest that Email: is a great boost for anyone who believes in a media reform still ranks as a priority for Labour’s [email protected] free and diverse media. The Labour Party had principles and policy direction.” BROADCASTING It’s that time of the decade, when the BBC’s BBC facing Charter, granted by Parliament, comes up for review. cutbacks, The BBC’s enemies in government and the commercial media combine to throw at it everything they’ve got, and its friends ‘a victim — campaigning and consumer groups, representing the rest of the population of its own — gather to try and defend it. Not always easy given management’s success’ propensity to cave in to threats and accept too much of the enemies’ agenda. DES FREEDMAN takes a But there is much more at issue than the searching look at the BBC’s structures, budget government’s plans for the and rules of operation. The whole future BBC and shows how of public broadcasting would be dangerous they are undermined if the corporation loses its critical mass to function as a universal public service. WHO WOULD have expected that one of the central debates about the future of the BBC would not be about its No-one wants to get rid of pro-business news coverage, its financial mismanagement or its alleged cover-up of the Jimmy Savile scandal but it completely; rather, about whether it should show Strictly on a Saturday night? commercial rivals want it The government’s Green Paper on BBC Charter Review signals the latest stage of a scuffle with the Corporation reduced to an elite rump, about how big, independent and accountable it should serving only those parts of the be. Dressed up as a sober debate about the purposes, scale community from which that they and scope of the BBC, the Green Paper consists of a series of proposals that, while drafted in Whitehall, could easily have been can’t derive enough profit — an conceived by the Daily Mail. audience for top-quality programming Culture Secretary John Whittingdale insists that he is rich enough to pay for it by subscription. Broadcasting unions “committed both to the future of the BBC and to its underlying have launched a Reithian mission”, but goes on to question the relevance in a This is behind all the calls to stop its “Love it or Lose it” digital age of the principle of universality, a founding principle of campaign which the this mission. Instead of encouraging the BBC to reach out across blockbuster entertainment shows, reduce its CPBF and other groups all platforms and to serve the whole community, it should focus news operations and cut back its website. If are backing. on “underserved audiences”, that is, those that commercial broad- Sign the petition at these succeed, then the public will be failed. casters deem to be unprofitable. http://bit.ly/bbc-lioli It seems the BBC’s very success is now its problem. The

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2 Free Press Autumn 2015 Green Paper moans that the BBC is the dominant player in all the markets in which it operates, without acknowledging that it is, at The inquiry least hypothetically, subject to public scrutiny, and secondly that it is not even the UK’s largest broadcaster. Its annual income of £5.2 billion is dwarfed by Sky’s £7.6 billion. Nonetheless it is obsessed by the BBC’s impact on the they should be market and lists more negative than positive consequences arising from the fact that it reaches its impressive 96 per cent of the population. listening to But why should we measure the BBC simply in terms of its impact on the marketplace? Do we judge the NHS on the basis of WITH THE ten-yearly ordeal of the whether it makes life difficult for Bupa? renewal of the BBC’s charter well This is an austerity-led consultation, obsessed (much like the under way there are numerous BBC itself) by the pursuit of “efficiency” and “value for money”. inquiries and consultations going This applies even to those services where it would be hard to apply on. The culture ministry and the standard economic arguments such as the provision of different Commons media committee language services within the UK. So, for example, it notes that the have launched virtually identical cost of S4C in Wales and BBC Alba in Scotland is “considerably operations, to which the CPBF higher than cost per hour for English speaking content”. and others are preparing identical How could it be otherwise? The point of public service broad- submissions. casting is to reach out to minority audiences whatever the cost. But an alternative forum is But the Green Paper contradicts its own stated aim, to shift the setting up, more likely to listen BBC away from popular programming and to focus on content not to media reformers and come to provided by the market. positive conclusions . The Inquiry There is a restricted discussion of funding mechanisms with into Public Service Television for three options identified: a reformed licence fee (to allow for digital the 21st Century is to be chaired Lord Puttnam: film producer with consumption), a household payment and a combination of public by Lord Puttnam, the Labour- strong record of opposing media funding and subscription. Funding the BBC from general taxation supporting film producer who monopolies is dismissed on the basis that it would “risk lessening the BBC’s fought the winning battle in the independence from Government”. House of Lords to get a “public new modes of production and Given that the last two licence fee deals took place behind interest” test written into the 2003 distribution and a far more closed doors and that the most recent deal forced the BBC to part Communications Act – a crucial competitive and unstable economic fund the government’s welfare cuts, this is far from a convincing check on the Big Media monopolies. environment.” argument. Project partners include the It takes its inspiration from a The Green Paper does raise some important questions on British Academy, BAFTA, Vice, the previous landmark inquiry into UK underlying values and performance. It is true that the BBC has a Guardian, Goldsmiths University broadcasting. In 1962, the Pilkington poor record in both hiring and representing ethnic minorities. But and the Hansard Society. It will set Committee recommended the how on earth will a smaller, narrower and more ghettoised BBC up a website on which people can adoption of colour TV licences do better? comment, and publish its findings and the creation of BBC2. But the The BBC needs radical surgery but this skewed and partisan next June. Report was far more than a list consultation will do nothing either to democratise the Corporation The inquiry says its starting point of policy prescriptions, issuing a or to secure a more diverse media landscape. We need media is that “TV still matters in a digital prescient warning of the direction outlets that are truly independent of vested interests and bold environment: despite predictions of travel of British television enough to challenge “common sense” arguments on, for example, that the internet would put an end under the influence of a growing immigration and austerity. to the dominance of TV, the average commercial mindset and an We need media outlets that look and sound like the audiences UK viewer still watches nearly four increasing number of programmes to whom they are supposed to be accountable. An ideological hours of television every day, a figure imported from the USA. campaign fought on behalf of the BBC’s commercial rivals really that has remained largely stable since It advocated measures to isn’t the way to go about this. the introduction of multichannel revitalise the idea of public service broadcasting. Even 16–24-year-olds broadcasting and foster a more are still watching some two and a creative and robust public culture. half hours of TV a day. The new inquiry plans a “Pilkington” THIS TORY DOESN’T “Yet TV is simultaneously being for the 21st century, considering the transformed with the emergence role and responsibility of television TALK BUNK of more complex viewing practices, in the digital world. NOT ALL Tories are out to get the BBC. In fact former minister Damian Green MP has come out strongly in its defence, in an article The BBC: Love it or Lose it in , arguing that “Britain benefits from a strong BBC, and we have OPEN MEETING IN LONDON the prospect of maintaining that in the years MONDAY SEPTEMBER 21 ahead. It is a great national prize.” 6pm at the NUJ, 308 Grays Inn Road Green, a former BBC and Channel 4 London WC1X 8DP (Kings Cross) journalist who chairs the Parliamentary The fight for the future of the BBC is All-Party BBC Group, said: “The free market fundamentalists under way. And so are government who want to destroy the BBC or weaken it so that it becomes attacks which threaten the public broadcaster’s future. Even unrecognisable are in danger of damaging not just our national before public consultations could begin on the renewal next culture but an important institution for transmitting it.” year of the BBC Charter, Culture Secretary John Whittingdale He went on: “The Reithian mission statement to inform, educate announced that the corporation had agreed to fund free TV and entertain has stood the test of time extraordinarily well. licences for over-75s at a cost of £650 million a year and rising. There is an assumption that in a digital world with infinite choice The CPBF is holding this open meeting to discuss the next stages we no longer need a broadcaster with broad ambitions funded in in the campaign. a universal way. This is not the view of the British people.” Come along with your ideas to build the campaign.

Autumn 2015 Free Press 3 REVIEW Don’t get sentimental learn from the past TOM MILLS reviews a new history of the broader Establishment, and its place in the “had shifted”. Milne’s successor, the accountant the BBC by a supporter who doesn’t hollowing out our democratic institutions and Michael Checkland, is praised as a quiet hero who get to grips with the real problems erosion of independent journalism that we have “helped beat over mighty unions”, whilst the seen since. Thatcherite BBC executive Patricia Hodgson, who Pinkoes and Traitors; Jean Seaton; Pinkoes and Traitors, however, does not now chairs Ofcom, emerges as the pragmatic Profile Books address these issues in any depth – and to be fair saviour of the corporation. it does not attempt to. In style and substance it The central problem is that Seaton’s account falls uneasily between social history and popular is of the BBC as an institution. She has little WE HAVE been here before – a Conservative journalism. sense of how its internal politics relate to government buoyed by an election victory and Seaton’s treatment of the BBC is more than broader social and political movements and emboldened by the overwhelming support of the a little sanguine and her account of its enemies interests. She celebrates its pragmatism as well corporate media hopes to reshape British society is cursory at best. As a result Pinkoes and Traitors as its idealism, whilst showing little interest and once again the BBC is in the firing line. offers a sentimental defence of the corporation in either the consequences of the concessions The arrival of Pinkoes and Traitors, an official and surprisingly little sense of the principles at and compromises the BBC leadership has made, history of the BBC from 1974 to 1987, then, is stake in the struggles it details. or the extent to which it has lived up to the certainly timely. It covers the period of Murdoch’s Seaton’s BBC shows “the nation to itself, with laudable ideals it professes. ascendancy in British public life, the rise of a dusting of the stardust of impartiality added”. To be fair again, this is a weakness shared by Thatcherism and the decline of social democracy She writes of its “glory, its unique independence most liberal defenders of the BBC, who respect – the vestiges of which the Tories are now and its British integrity”. In so far as she sees a the corporation as a purveyor of national culture determined to demolish. problem with this almost magical national insti- and a bulwark against the crass commercialism Jean Seaton tells the story of government tution, it was in its “failure to understand the of News International, but tend to give little attacks on the BBC, the Peacock Inquiry into its shift in ideas” in the period under examination. attention to its actual record on reporting and finances and the public disputes over a number This sort of characterisation is fine for the the extent to which its capacity for independent of political programmes, culminating in the Daily Telegraph. But Seaton is an academic who journalism, always limited, has been further dismissal of the Director General, Alistair Milne, must surely be aware of the now extensive of curtailed since Thatcher. in 1987. scholarly research on neoliberalism – all of which The BBC’s well-meaning apologists find These were significant moments in British is overlooked in favour of vague references to the themselves defending a BBC that no longer political and social history, and their telling national mood. exists, at a time when the democratic principles provides ample opportunity to examine the Some figures within the BBC, according to it is thought to embody are under serious threat BBC’s complex relationship with the state and Seaton, were quicker to recognise that this mood from both without and within. HOW THE BBC REALLY WORKS THE BBC milks its claimed sponsorship, though much of their The BBC Trust said: “We welcome War that detailed human rights reputation as the world’s leading content related to Malaysia. Ofcom’s findings which found a violations perpetrated by the news broadcaster, bringing BBCWN told Ofcom: “We now number of these programmes to government against Tamils. But Britain’s envied and thorough know that FBC had a PR relation- have been in serious breach of while the BBC Tamil service standards to benighted foreigners. ship with Malaysian clients and as editorial and sponsorship guidelines. broadcast it in full, the Sinhala That’s the theory. Two recent such we fully accept that it was The Trust required BBC World News service cut out an account of events might appear to belie it. not an appropriate producer of to broadcast a series of apologies to torture in rehabilitation camps ■ the programmes it produced for international audiences.” and added false claims from a Sri ■ THE CORPORATION has been Lankan military spokesman that BBCWN. We were not aware of this ■ rapped by Ofcom for broadcasting relationship when the content was ■ A BBC World Service radio the documentary had been made on its World News TV channel broadcast …. We accept that this journalist was sacked after he in league with a Tamil group. (BBCWN) nearly 200 documenta- lack of knowledge may have given refused to put a report of the Bandara was off work but on ries provided free by companies rise to the potential for BBCWN’s birth of Prince George out on a Sri his first day back he shouted at funded by special interests. independence of editorial control Lankan news service. several World Service executives, Ofcom said it “identified a over the content to be undermined.” Chandana Bandara was a senior was disciplined and fired. number of practices that were at Ofcom also looked at a producer on the Sinhala service. He appealed to the Employment odds with [its] Code”, though it “did programmes supplied free by not- In July 2013, after birth of Prince Tribunal against the sacking on not find evidence that the way for-profit outfits. One, Architects George, he declined to run a news grounds of race discrimination. His programmes were funded compro- on the Frontline, was paid for by item because he considered the mother is Tamil and he claimed to mised the broadcasters’ editorial the Aga Khan Foundation and 30th anniversary of Black July, when have been targeted because of his independence”. included the boast that the Aga thousands of Tamils were slaugh- belief that the Tamil people of Sri The half-hour documenta- Khan Award for Architecture was tered in Sri Lanka, was a more Lanka have been persecuted by the ries were produced by FactBased “widely recognised as the most important story. For this he was Sinhala-dominated government. Communications (FBC), which prestigious in its field”. Stealing the found guilty of gross misconduct In August the tribunal rejected had been paid £12 million by the Past, about antiquity smuggling, and given a final written warning. his case because the belief did not Malaysian government to promote was paid for by UNESCO and Four month later the Sinhala fulfil the criteria for race discrimina- the country. No reference was featured an interview with that service broadcast a documen- tion, and the dismissal process was made in the programmes to body’s director general. tary called Sri Lanka’s Unfinished found to be fair.

4 Free Press Autumn 2015 DAVID SHANKBONE

WHAT THE FUCK? OFCOM is investigating Sky News presenter Ian King’s use of the word “fuck” on live TV. He uttered the dreaded expletive after a microphone lead fell out while he was interviewing economist Michelle Meyer about the US economy King asked her about the OWNERSHIP “tepid” growth rate in the second quarter. Before she could answer, King, Get ready! Rupert off-camera, shouted “fuck”. He apologised on air and also could be back on Twitter. “Ofcom is POSTER SITES across the UK carry the announced that BSkyB was to drop Margaret Thatcher’s government looked message “Sky Sports and the Premier the word “British” from its branding the other way. investigating League 23 Years and counting”. after almost 25 years as the company A pan-European pay-TV giant has this programme, Back in 1992 Rupert Murdoch paid completed an ambitious transforma- now been created with more than which included £304 million for the five-year deal to tion into a pan-European pay TV giant £11 billion in revenues and 20 million the most broadcast the newly-formed Premier following the £6.88 billion buyout of its customers in the UK, Germany, Italy, offensive League matches on BSkyB. In February sister companies Sky Deutschland and Austria and Ireland. The enlarged language before 2015 Sky paid £4.18 billion to retain five Sky Italia. business has a combined budget of £4.6 the [9pm] of the seven Premier League rights The word “Broadcasting” was also billion and will deliver profits of about packages. BT got the others. jettisoned to reflect Fox’s evolution into £1.3 billion annually, most of which watershed,” said On 1 July this year James Murdoch a multimedia content company. are generated by the highly successful a spokesman became chief executive of ≤±st Century The sales delivered £4.9 billion in UK operation. for the media Fox. This move, and the election of cash to Murdoch’s Fox group without Sky is the biggest international regulator. So a Conservative government anxious diminishing its stake in BSkyB after the customer for Fox’s programming and a at one minute to build bridges with the Murdoch double takeover. It did this by buying up useful source of cash for the group. past 9, when clan after the phone-hacking scandal enough of the newly placed shares in That’s why the issue of full control of presumably torpedoed the Murdoch bid for full BSkyB to maintain its stake in the new Sky will move sharply up the Murdoch’s control of BSkyB in 2011, has led to spec- structure at 39.1 per cent. agenda. He has rejected two offers fewer children ulation that ≤±st Century Fox will make BSkyB’s original title was created for the 39.1 per cent stake in Sky, from are watching Sky another bid to take full control of Sky. in 1990 by the controversial merger, Vodafone and Vivendi, and it looks as if business news, What are the chances of this? Look illegal under the then media-ownership the next step will be a revival of the bid it would have at the big picture. rules, of Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Television to take full control of Sky. been OK. In mid-November 2014 it was with British Satellite Broadcasting, as Granville Williams Autumn 2015 Free Press 5 CRIME A sensational story by all accounts …

Beyond Contempt, Peter Jukes, motivation of a concerned professional to clean before him for inadvertently tweeting something Canbury Press up the dirty side of his trade. obscurely erroneous. Davies is actually published by a corporate Jukes writes telling portraits of all the Hack Attack, Nick Davies, Vintage publisher, Random House, but then he is highly participants, their court habits and their fuming bankable since the success of his groundbreaking rivalries, and though he does so even-handedly, Hacking: the Untold Story, James account of rotten journalism, Flat Earth News, well, if you really hate vain lawyers you’ll love Hanning and Glenn Mulcaire, Gibson published in 2008. this book. Beyond Contempt Square His motivation is shared by the other authors, Also original about – he had who include two former journalists on the to keep the title secret until the trial ended in The Fall of the House of Murdoch, Independent and a couple of freelances. The star case it prejudiced the proceedings – is its funding Peter Jukes, Unbound among them is Peter Jukes, whose background model. He started tweeting from the outset and, as a TV dramatist is evident throughout Beyond with no income, found himself broke after a few Contempt, the story of the sensational phone- days. He launched an online appeal and raised all IT IS NOT just Britain’s vaunted national press hacking trial of former editors he needed in two days. That’s the prospect the that has managed to mess up the political story and and others from the News corporate publishers can’t see. of the century, so far. The corporate publishing of the World. His other offering, The Fall of the House of industry has as well. The book is pioneering in a number of ways. Murdoch, written in 2012, is less arresting. Again The story – no not Jeremy Corbyn, though that It is the world’s first tweeted history book. He a narrative, of how the phone-hacking scandal might turn out to be a big one – concerned the covered the whole eight-month marathon in brought the Murdoch dynasty to its knees, it has very contempt for democracy among our rulers court to maintain a constant Twitter feed, and the misfortune of being overtaken by events, that generated the popular revulsion propelling has written it up as kind of diary. He had to since they have with apparent ease been able to Corbyn’s campaign. It was of course the navigate the tortuous legal processes, under get up again. It is also tiresomely repetitive. revelation of the corrupt relationships between which there was always a mass of information The hacking story is more vividly told in politicians and the corporate media Hacking: the Untold Story, a that emerged from the whole saga strange collaboration between of criminal behaviour in the press former Independent journalist and the contamination of political James Hanning and the sleek- life that led to the Leveson and haired pantomime villain Glenn culminated in the disgrace and Mulcaire, the private eye hired trials of some of the most powerful for the purpose by the News of people in the country. the World. Hanning is the only There can’t have been many such writer to get Mulcaire to talk devastating exposures of top-level freely, which is more than even corruption in history – dwarfing all Nick Davies could achieve. the minor scandals and even the As you might expect he child abuse stories in its significance emerges as a thoroughly – but it’s easy to see why it was so mixed-up character, indignant hard for the media to cover. Their conduct was at that could not be published, with painful care. at his treatment yet with the dignity of a devout the heart of it. This punctiliousness is balanced by a ferocious catholic and family person. He rages at being There’s no such excuse for the big publishers sense of drama, with hours of tedious legalistics accused of hacking murdered teenager Milly to avoid it, yet most of the print and ebook punctuated by moments of edge-of-the-bench Dowler’s phone, yet he did it in a confirmed accounts have come from self-publishers or new tension and at times of humour. belief that it was to help the police and rescue one-person outfits. “Feel a question coming on, do we?” the their incompetent investigation. They have discovering a readership that will judge interrupts in full flow one of the vastly This is the puzzled guilt of the person caught pay, and more crowd-funded works are coming expensive array of QCs hired by Murdoch to up in an immoral exercise who half-knew it at from the doughty band of journalists who are defend his henchpersons, perforating the rhetoric time but can’t face the awesome responsibility. prepared to defy the paranoid defensiveness of as he is supposedly questioning a witness. A handful of journalists from the News of the the Big Media and get the story out. It is, after all, Appropriately, Judge Saunders is the star World have come out with similar reflections in dramatic by any standards. of the show, maintaining an even temper different ways, mainly, being journalists, through It is also notable that not one of the authors throughout the barely believable prevarica- bravado. It would be instructive if the News is a specialist writer on the media. The media tions of the lawyers and stepping in to rescue International executives who were responsible correspondents, basically business reporters witnesses under heavy defence fire. He was were required to examine publicly their own covering the industry, are too compromised by even kind to Peter Jukes when he was hauled consciences, but they have expensive lawyers to their employment to write freely, even if they protect them. ■ had the inclination. If you really hate ■ Another book on the scandal, Dial M for Murdoch, Even Nick Davies, whose new book Hack was published in 2012, written by former Independent Attack is a comprehensive narrative of the whole vain lawyers you’ll reporter Martin Hickman and Labour MP Tom Watson. phone-hacking saga, chronicles the industry It was positively reviewed in Free Press issue 188. from a background as a crime reporter with the love this book Tim Gopsill 6 Free Press Autumn 2015 REVIEW … AND Now fake Labour’s MORE sheikh hateful ARE days in ON THE could face May The Election A-Z, Nicholas Jones, WAY the music Urbane Publications ANOTHER FREELANCE who reported the hacking trial, James Doleman, is crowd- SEVEN PEOPLE jailed Mahmood went to work for NICHOLAS JONES has drawn on his experiences funding a further book on after being caught in sting the Sun on Sunday but was of reporting 14 UK general elections and writing operations by the former suspended after the collapse popular instant books on four of them. As the the story, taking it up from “inves- of the Contostavlos trial. title suggests, his 2015 oeuvre has 26 chapters in Peter Jukes’ “downfall” tigations” reporter Mazher He has had a mysteri- alphabetical order. of the Murdochs to argue Mahmood are to appeal ously charmed existence on Some are self-evident: A for Advertising; G why they still have so much against their convictions. Murdoch’s London papers. for Gaffes; O for Opinion polls. For others he has power after getting away Their lawyers argue that With all the proceedings over had to work harder: K for Kitchens; Q for Queen; with “the greatest escape in there are “serious concerns” phone-hacking and bribery, W for Wives; X for Xavier (Michael Denzil Xavier legal history”. over Mahmood’s integrity as Mahmood’s dubious methods Portillo, to give him his full name and Z for…you He will ask what would a witness and his journalistic of procuring stories – which will have to read the book to see. have happened if all the practices. involved close collabora- J for Journalists highlights the impact of evidence in the millions of The appeals are the tion with police who were 24-hour TV news and the internet, with its social “disappeared” emails had result of statements made invariably tipped off and media and networking -- personal blogs, Twitter, been retrieved. by Judge Alistair McCreath, moved in to make arrests when halting the trial of just as the NoW was about Through the crowd-funding singer Contostavlos to go to press – somehow journalism website Byline, last year, that there were escaped scrutiny. James Doleman is trying “strong grounds for believing” For years there have to raise £3,200 to write the Mahmood had “lied” on oath been questions about his book in two months. Go to as a prosecution witness. entrapment of gullible people www.byline.com/project/8. Two of the seven are known by means of his much- Byline has also launched to be actor John Alford and vaunted talent for disguise a fund-raising campaign to former boxer Herbie Hide, as the “Fake Sheikh” among raise £5,000 towards the both jailed for supplying other personages. costs of researching and drugs to Mahmood. This mystique has been publishing a biography The Crown Prosecution maintained by the entire of former News of the Service is still considering press, with an effective World and Mirror editor whether to charge him veto on the publication of with perjury a year after the his image on the supposed Piers Morgan, entitled A collapse of the trial of Tulisa ground this would put him Pretty Despicable Man, Contostavlos, also charged in danger. Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, BuzzFeed and by investigative freelance with dealing drugs. The CPS The obvious point that other platforms – on the coverage. Paddy French. The title is abandoned three ongoing if he has been so good at Jeremy Corbyn might appreciate M for the apparently a self-description prosecutions in which disguising himself, then his Monstering of Miliband to remind him of the by the man himself. Mahmood was to be a crown real appearance would not savage treatment the press can dish out. “The French says: “Morgan’s witness on the grounds be recognisable, was never pounding he (Miliband) would be subject to … Mirror was hacking, blagging, that his evidence could not raised. Even Lord Leveson, to was as vicious as the treatment meted out to lying and cheating it’s way to be relied on to guarantee a the disappointment of many, Gordon Brown, Neil Kinnock and Michael Foot, exclusives — just like the Sun conviction. ordered that cameras be but the pre-election monstering of Miliband and the News of the World. The CPS also said it was switched off when Mahmood went further than simply trashing of his person- "His editorship was the re-examining 25 cases in gave evidence to his inquiry. ality and the ridiculing of his political credibility.” which evidence had been Not all journalists Jones puts this down to Miliband’s opposition climax of a slow acceptance given by Mahmood and are in awe of this taboo. to Murdoch over the phone-hacking scandal, by leading Mirror executives people convicted. Guardian media blogger Roy his support for Leveson’s call for independent that there was no way to In January it dropped the Greenslade, who worked press regulation and the need to protect compete with Murdoch case against 13 footballers with Mahmood on the media plurality. except to use the same investigated over alleged Sunday Times in the 1990s, At the heart of this book is Jones’s methods. Including all the match-fixing, saying there when Mahmood was sacked commitment to straight reporting which caused illegal dark arts. was “insufficient evidence to for falsifying computer Blair’s spin doctor Alistair Campbell in his diaries AATo support this provide a realistic prospect of records, and has maintained to describe him as a “tick” – “parasitic insect crowdfunding effort, go conviction”. a campaign against him, … unpleasant or despicable person”, Oxford to www.byline.com/project/11. After the closure of has provided a witness Dictionary. High praise. the News of the World statement for the appellants. Barry White Autumn 2015 Free Press 7 CAMPAIGN Election not a total loss FRANC DAVID THE TORY election victory did not mean that the Recognition Panel set up this year. fight for media reform was lost, speakers told the Impress has not yet announced any media CPBF’s annual meeting in June. subscribing to its service, but Heawood said this There was still a strong public opinion against did not matter. Once a regulator had registered, the excesses of Big Media, and the post-Leveson he said, “the Leveson process will click into process of introducing a stronger independent action.” All the legal incentives and disincentives mean of regulating the press was still on track. for publications to sign up with a recognised Evan Harris, executive director of the regulator will come into force. campaigning group Hacked Off, said: “After the Most national publishers have registered election things are not hopeless at all. There are with IPSO, set up by the industry, which had more MPs who share our views on the media said it would not apply to register with the PRP. than the total number of government MPs.” They could face massive costs in libel cases as a Jonathan Heawood, director of Impress, the result. But Heawood said: “Leveson should not prospective press regulator, said they were now All is not lost: Jonathan Heawood (left) and Evan be thrown out just because three or four big able to register with the publicly-appointed Press Harris at the CPBF’s annual meeting in June. companies don’t like it. Freedom of info: CAMPAIGN THE one-sided inquiry FESTIVE THE GOVERNMENT looks set to curtail the “revisit” the act to ensure officials were public’s right to information following the able to speak candidly to ministers. WAY announcement of a Commission to review Cabinet Office Minister Lord Bridges A DAY of activity for media the Freedom of Information Act. said the commission would consider democracy is set for Saturday The Campaign for Freedom of whether there was a balance between October 17 at a London college. Information says it is particularly the requirement for transparency and the The Media Reform Coalition, concerned by the commission’s remit to “robust protection” of sensitive infor- which includes the CPBF, is reduce the “burden” of FoI on bureau- mation. It would examine the need planning a festival with open crats and protect the confidentiality of to “moderate” the demands placed on spaces for discussion as well government discussions. public authorities. as expert speakers, plus, films, The commission, set up by Justice Director of the Campaign for Freedom Secretary Michael Gove, is chaired by of Information Maurice Frankel said: crowdfunding opportunities for former Treasury mandarin Lord Burns and “The government is clearly proposing now projects, and a party to includes former Conservative Party leader to crackdown on FoI. Ministers want round it all off. Lord Howard, Labour ex-home secretary certainty that policy discussions will not The Media Democracy Festival Jack Straw, Ofcom chair Dame Patricia only take place in secret but be kept secret will take place at Goldsmiths Hodgson and the former reviewer of afterwards. University in New Cross, London counter-terrorism legislation, Lord Carlile. “They don’t like the fact that the Act SE14, starting at 10am. It will None is associated with questioning requires the case for confidentiality to be open to all who believe that official secrecy. be weighed against the public interest in media moguls have too much Gove told MPs there was a need to disclosure.” power and influence in our society, who want to protect and democratise the BBC, would SCOTS FIGHT FOR INFO FREEDOM love to see media co-ops in THE CAMPAIGN for Freedom of Information in Scotland (CFOIS) has every community or just work launched a crowdfunding drive to strengthen FoI laws in the nation. The as an independent journalist, campaign is a response to a Scottish government consultation paper. photographer or film maker. Carole Ewart, convener of the CFOIS said: “It is hugely disappointing that the government has come forward with such feeble proposals. Pressure Speakers arranged so far needs to be brought to bear to demand that the Scottish government include veteran radical journalist reverses the erosion of FOI rights in Scotland.” John Pilger and independent The Scottish government had promised legislation to extend FOI technology guru Aral Balkan. to non-government bodies such as housing associations, arms-length But the bulk of the day will companies set up by public authorities, voluntary-sector organisations and be a self-organising open space private companies. But the consultation paper failed to deliver these. SATURDAY where everyone will be free It said that housing associations and private schools for instance were already adequately regulated. It did suggest including a small number OCTOBER to propose any session that of other bodies, such as private prisons and grant-aided schools, but not 17 answers our central question: private contractors that run schools, hospitals or other public services. 10am to how can we create media AAThe CFOIS crowdfunding website is at http://bit.ly/CFOIS-fund. late democracy?

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